Rehman Shah, a magician living in Delhi, says that his nature of work is such that his work stopped almost a month before the lockdown. He along with his family used to perform on streets as well as birthday parties. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, people started avoiding large gatherings and hence Rehman’s work suffered.There were no events to perform at. He says,” Since the other options were closed, we were performing in gullies. We were still managing to make the ends meet”.
He along with hundreds of other families used to live in Katputli colony near Patel Nagar in Delhi. They were asked to vacate the place by DDA a few years ago. Now his family along with 2000 other families live in a transit camp in Anand Parbat area of Delhi.
Rehman says he has performed internationally too. He said he used to get connected to people through birthday parties and they helped him participate in international events in Germany, Dubai, Turkey and many other countries. He says,” I have so many people who can feed me as an individual. I am the Pradhan of this area. But the question is of 46 other families related to me. Cousins and their families and extended families, all look at me in hope of getting help. We need money to survive. WhateverI help I get, I have to feed these 46 families with that”.
He said there are more than 1000 families who are into performing arts (street magic, puppeting, etc.) living around him. This community is facing troubles and their suffering started much before the lockdown.