Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

All for two square meals

By G.V. Prasada Sarma

Lakshmana Rao of Srikakulam performing feats on his bicycle on the Ramakrishna Beach Road in Visakhapatnam. Photo: C. V. Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM, FEB. 17. For anybody passing by on Ramakrishna Beach Road, a ramshackle bicycle and a few stainless steel tumblers strewn carelessly around might appear a strange sight.

But within minutes, 48-year-old Lakshmana Rao turned them into instruments to display his acrobatic skills. He threw the eight tumblers around and mounted his bicycle sans chain and pedals.

Manoeuvring the wheels, mostly the back wheel, with his hands and feet he placed the tumblers in a single line.

He then moved the back wheel from one tumbler to the other and pirouetted the bicycle with the wheel on the tumblers at either end.

Array of feats

Rao ran through the array of feats in just 15 minutes. ``I have seen feats performed on a bicycle but not such difficult ones,'' said Ravi from Khammam who came to the city for Army recruitment.

``It's as tricky as those performed in a circus on a bigger scale,'' said Raju, a student from Kancharapalem.

For the past 20 years, for the frail Lakshmana Rao, hailing from Narsannapeta in Srikakulam district, the bicycle and tumblers are his livelihood. Rao visits various cities and towns for eking out his livelihood. "I cannot perform the feat for more than three times as it exhausts me,'' he admits and says that he took interest on working the bicycle and invented the feats himself.

He can do other feats like driving the bicycle on glowing bulbs, jumping over children with a normal bicycle and running it over a stool and bench placed on 30 children.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

Happening... and how!
All for two square meals
Man, son commit suicide
VPT Master List candidate ends life
Officials warned on water shortage
RINL to mark formation day
Around The City
In Visakhapatnam Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu