THE CROWD PULLER - STORY

He was a happy go lucky man or that is what people thought about him. He has that uncanny gift of attracting attention. There was something mysterious about him. He could be seen at different parts of the city pulling crowds at pavements or parks with his jugglery, antics and rare feel of forget me not behavior. He was just any common man in the streets and dressed casually. He would appear from nowhere and disappear to nowhere. People had seen him performing on the pavement and parks but beyond that no one knew what he did for a living or where he lived. With a bag hanging on his shoulders and slippers on his feet he was a man with a mission-to entertain people. He could imitate popular film stars and politicians. He could juggle with five rubber balls, spindles, rings, bottles, cups and never falter even once. He could many magical tricks with cards. He could tell exactly how much cash you had in your wallet. He could tell whether the photo of the beautiful girl in your wallet was your wife or fiancée. He could convert a torn currency note in a brand new one. He could multiply your currency many times and could let it disappear. All what he needed was stand on a pavement or in a park, blow his trumpet and crowd would assemble around him. Children were his favorite. In fact he has tricks up his arms for every age group. His shoulder bag was his store house of all his belongings and magic materials. No one including the police constable on beat would object to his roadside show even if it was obstructing traffic... For the sake formality he would politely ask him to finish it as fast as possible. It looked he enjoyed it more than anybody else. He never accepted any reward or payment. That is probably he was miles apart from other jugglers who played for money. That is one of the reasons he could keep his audience around him for as long as he wished. Sometimes people will insist that he accept the little amount he offered but he would distribute the same among the poor kids watching his show. Then he would blow his trumpet as signal for the end of the show and move as silently as he had appeared. People had different takes on his life and motives. Some went to the extent of telling that he was a CID man in disguise looking for some dreaded criminal or collecting some intelligence information. Some said he was a detective from a neighboring country. Some said he was a jilted lover taking revenge on his lover. Some even opined that he was God’s messenger distributing smile on earth in his peculiar way. It is strange that nobody had any clue where he lived. Above all one needs some sort of bed to place his back on even if it is a pavement. One needs to take a bath, wash his clothes, and have some meals all of which he apparently did. One needs a shelter to hide his head. Agreeing that he slept on pavements, used the public wash rooms and ate at some eateries, how come that he had remained elusive for all these months? How come that nobody had seen him anywhere except when he was performing? Did he change his attire after the show? These and many similar questions were the topic of discussions after the shows ended but there were no answers or may be nobody really tried. Above all he was just a juggler. Everybody however agreed that he was a crowd puller and expert entertainer. The town was abuzz with the news that a man in his thirties was found hanging from a tree in the park. Those who had seen the body were sure he was the juggler. News spread like fire that the juggler was dead. People who he had entertained for the last few months were rushing to the police station for the last ‘darshan’. Would they perform his last rites too? ODE TO THE GREAT CROWD PULLER.