You might have heard of Nik Wallenda, the intrepid aerialist, who earned international acclaim with his iconic rope walking directly across the majestic Niagara Falls in 2012 and later ambling across a wire atop an active volcano in
Nicaragua in 2020. India has its lesser-known daredevil Wallendas, who
eke out a living with their death-defying feats on the tightrope.

Prior to the onset of the Covid contagion, these street performers could be easily spotted in Delhi at bustling market places, busy thoroughfares, religious congregations, trade fairs, and exhibitions.

Primarily belonging to the Nat community of Bargaon village in Janjgir-Champa belt of Chhattisgarh, these trapeze artists literally traverse across the country to display their mesmerising rope-walking skills, which have been honed to perfection down the generations.

The pandemic had dealt a deadly blow to their hereditary trade, with hardly any takers for their mind-boggling feats. Reduced to abject penury, most of these roving rope-walkers were compelled to beseech for alms on the city streets, with their children performing backbending acrobatic feats at important traffic signals.

The prolonged farmers’ agitation brought a new lease of life for these harried performers, as they found gainful engagement for five months at the farmers’ protest site at Singhu on Delhi-Haryana border.
Their struggle for survival is akin to walking the tightrope of life every day.
Having selected a site, they hastily fasten a thick rope/bamboo shaft 12 ft. above the ground between two/four poles dug into the earth.

Egged on by the raucous calls of her parents and the occasional accompaniment of pre-recorded catchy Bollywood numbers & drum-beats, a girl in her early teens performs her high-rope capers.

With confidence writ large on her face, she wobbles across the makeshift rope with a gaudy coloured wooden pole in her hands and a bronze pot delicately placed over her head.

Depending on the size and response of the crowd, she displays a wide repertory of her stunts viz. deftly walks the rope with a plate beneath one foot, performs flip-flops or balances the wheel with much dexterity, to the amazement of awe-struck onlookers, who pitch in with their donations.

Birju, a veteran performer, bemoans the general discrimination towards his tribe. He laments the fact that there are no takers among the younger generation for their aerial stunts. His crumpled clothes, sunken cheeks and weary looks portend a grim future for this age-old profession.