Delhi Diary 6

They are there everyday - at the corner of the Malviya Nagar crossing from the Aurobindo Marg side. The mother plays the drum while her son, not more than seven years old, begins his acrobatics for the benefit of the passengers in the vehicles waiting for the red light to turn green. The boy wears a cap with a stringed yo yo kind of a thing attached right at the top of the cap. He swings his head in a circular motion and the yo yo moves around him. He then stretches his arms clasps his hands and takes them behind him and takes his legs through the space between the arms. As a third item he draws up a tiny hoopla and goes in and out of it. Then he comes to beg. But every time he begs, he gives his head a flick and the yo yo rotates. His sister, a little older, does somersaults on the streets.