The Hindu : Karnataka News : His life is a circus, so it is for his sons

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Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

His life is a circus, so it is for his sons

Firoz Rozindar

Chaggan, a performer in a circus in Chitradurga, seeks a better life for his daughter

Everyday affair: Chagganbhai with his wife and children getting ready for a show in Chitradurga.

Chitradurga: Working in the circus as a clown, 40-year-old-Chagganbhai’s life is not all that rosy despite bringing smiles on the faces of people for the past 15 years.

Mr. Chaggan is one among the four clowns working in Golden Circus Company which has put up its tent in Chitradurga. Hailing from Vadodara district of Gujarat, he joined the circus at the age of 25 as he could not find a better means of livelihood. Before being employed with the circus, he had been working on his family’s undivided farmland. But over the years, he did not find the job appealing and neither was it all that revenue generating.

“We are seven siblings, of whom three are girls who have been married off. My brothers are now looking after the farm, but I left it long ago,” he said.

Mr. Chaggan said it was only he, who had had a stunted growth, while all his siblings had grown normally.

“Being very short, I did not feel it fit to be with my family and thus decided to join a circus, where I met people like me,” he added.

Mr. Chaggan has four children, of whom the youngest is a one-year-old girl. While all his three boys are also very short, the girl is normal like her mother. Living a near-nomadic life, he said there was no other job he could get other than that at the circus. “I have studied up to eighth standard. With that education and my size, what other work will I get? I will keep working with the circus till health permits,” he said.

He wanted his sons to study and take to other professions. But, his meagre income of Rs. 1,800 a month does not permit him to send them to school. Thus, all his sons Ajay, Vijay and Shailesh work with him in the circus, while his wife takes care of his daughter, Sonal. Ajay (13), the eldest, has never been to school.

The circus itself serves as an open school with him earning for his performances.

Asked what he wished to be in future, he seemed confused, but, quickly replied that he wished to remain with the circus.

Perhaps, the only dream Mr. Chaggan has is to educate his daughter. “I do not want her to become a circus performer. I want her to be a teacher.

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