From Chembur to Wipro via the USA - with an amazing journey to wizardry thrown in

Cartik the Conjuror, also known as Karthik Rajagopal Iyer, was the guest speaker at the last meeting

This is the story of a young Chembur boy who went to the USA at the age of 17 after completing his H.S.C. (higher secondary) from Somaiya College to pursue an academic career.

His name was Karthik Rajagopal Iyer. Back home in Bombay, he used to be enthralled by staged .magic shows. and the roadside performances of poor, waif-like magicians and wizards, especially the latter.

On reaching the USA, or somewhere along the way, he lost his way, or rather he found his way - and he stepped into a different world where he himself became a "conjuror and wizard".

As an undergraduate, he made friends with Nick Norton, whose father owned the Silverwood theme park in Athol, Indiana. He quickly became a stage hand and immersed himself in the world of theatre and magic.

Once the "inner magician" in him was aroused, he and Nick started practising the art of conjuring and wizardry under the supervision of Mr. Jeff McBride, a seven-time world champion of "manipulative magic".

Karthik, who used to be enthralled by "magic shows" and the street performances of magicians and wizards, underwent a transformation.

Where have all the street magicians gone? Why don.t we visit the circus any longer? Cartik the Conjuror wants to know

He became "Cartik the Conjuror" and along with Nick and Mark, yet another friend, virtually took over all the magic shows and acts performed at the Silverwood theme park.

However, like a typical Indian youth who goes abroad to pursue his studies, he did not ignore his books. He graduated as an engineer and soon bid goodbye to his books and to the academic world.

What next? His friend Nick.s father offered this young engineer a permanent job as an entertainer at his theme park.

But Mr. Karthik Iyer did not take up the job. Instead, he returned to India with a vow to help the tottering world of Indian magic find its feet once again.

Easier said than done? Yes.

So first, he got a job as Programme Manager with M/s Wipro Technologies, one of India.s leading software houses. And there, in Bangalore, as sheer luck would have it, he made friends with another person with similar interests.

And, voila! The old firm of "conjuror and wizard" was back in business!

Adopting "Cartik the Conjuror" as his stage name, Mr. Iyer and his friend got down to setting up a magic school and also establishing India's "first magic theatre".

In his own words, "Soon, our collaboration gained momentum and we acquired Indian disciples to perfect the art of wizardry".

Their research took them closer to Yoga, "pranayama" (controlled breathing), endurance, isolation, meditation, astrology, "indrajaal", vedic rituals through "mantras" and so on. They even "breached the realms" of white magic and devoted time to the study of black magic through "tantrik shakti" and "vidya".

At one stage, Mr. Iyer felt, "the study of black arts enabled us, with the conjuring prowess, to summon myriad elements and control wind, fire, water and other elements".

To return to the noble thought behind returning to India (leaving behind a budding career as an entertainer in the USA), Cartik the Conjuror and his team now represents other "artistes" in the field to ensure that their art is not abused and that it gets due recognition. A registered office has been established in Mangalore under the name "KardKingz".

Reminding his audience in the Ball Room of the Taj Mahal Hotel last Tuesday that "there exists a magician in all of us", Cartik gave an interesting display of his prowess as conjuror and "cardician" (which is far removed from cardiac problems).

He recalled the regular street-side magicians and performers that he encountered during his childhood and regretted that on his return to Bombay they all seemed to have disappeared - or had they gone underground?

In Europe, on the other hand, street performers were growing by the day. In fact, many "entertainers" did not like stage performances at all and preferred to perform only on the streets.

Cartik lamented the lot of magicians and street performers and said that whenever he attended an international gathering of people of his ilk, he found that there were no representatives from India.

This total lack of interest in Indian magic was shocking, considering that India was home to innumerable "tricks" (remember the "great Indian rope trick"?).

It was for this reason that he attempted to re-introduce street magic to Bombay and Bangalore.

The reactions that came forth were stunning - it seemed as if an entire generation had grown up without any exposure whatsoever to street magic, card magic, magic with coins and so on.

In the course of his presentation, Cartik used a slide show in juxtaposition with a few video clips to explain some simple but salient points of magic. But the milliondollar question that remained unanswered till the end was: can magic change one's destiny?

Many people used "magic" - as in intuition . in their day-to-day lives. Besides, often people had a premonition of events to come and said, .I knew that this was going to happen.. Both these "skills", intuition and premonition, could be honed or further developed.

This was one of the ways in which magic worked in ordinary life. If one had the power, one could use it. But Cartik recalled the words of the fictional character Superman who said, "With immense power comes immense responsibility".

Another sad truth was the virtual disappearance of the circus from people.s lives. .When was the last time you went to an Indian circus?. he asked. Circus workers were also "artistes" but this Indian art had almost disappeared.

"We need to figure out how exactly to get together and. bring some of the magic back. Maybe you can do something not just for magic, but for another segment of the arts. Maybe you can help find some artistes and people who are interested and want to do something in the arts and for the arts".

Turning to white magic for a brief while, Cartik said it was also known as "Mantra shakti". Black magic, on the other hand, was called "Tantrik vidya".

White magic took a long time to master; it involved many skill sets and it took time, study, discipline and dedication to learn it.

But black magic was easier. In fact, thinking bad about somebody was as bad as casting a spell on that person.

"That's why they say, never think bad about somebody. Don't be jealous, don't have bad vibes."

To a few persistent calls from the hall for his "magic tricks", Cartik began his show.

He ascended a stool and, with a lilting song playing in the background, gave a brief conjuring performance with cards and coins, making them appear and disappear at will, fanning out the cards, showing that they were not stuck to each other and yet could be manipulated in such a way as to seem as if they were glued to one another.

Following his brief conjuring performance, Cartik said he would attempt a mass "illusion". He displayed five playing cards on the screen and told the audience to think about just one of them and not to change their mind about the chosen card. After a brief spell, he removed one of the cards which, he felt, had been kept in mind by most people.

He then showed a screen with only four of the original cards, with the one which he felt that most members had in mind, missing. Surprisingly, several hands went up when he asked whether the missing card was indeed the one that was in their minds.

Rising to ask a question after the presentation, Roda Billimoria first informed Cartik that many of the street magicians could be seen in Mahabaleshwar. Next, she asked why it took longer for "good" or white magic to act rather than "bad" or black magic?

Cartik said "black" magic acted faster because it was like a shortcut, whereas "white" magic involved a disciplined, dedicated study of several "mantras", their recitation and meditation.

Burjor Poonawala wondered whether Cartik would be able to perform some of the feats accomplished by "artistes" like David Copperfield.

Why not? The speaker countered" After all, what David Copperfield was doing was a .production" with a huge budget" His own shows, on the other hand, had no production costs. .Give me a huge budget and I can make the Taj Mahal Hotel disappear - with you inside it!.

Giving the background to David Copperfield and other entertainers, Cartik revealed that it was some television channels that were facing poor viewer ship who scouted around for mass entertainment programmes for prime time.

They worked backwards, first deciding what they felt the viewers wanted to see and only then did they ask artistes like David Copperfield to design their shows accordingly.

"Any production show comes with a production cost. I have no production cost" Period. What I do is stage performance - manipulation. David's act is stage illusion, with huge production costs. He makes grand outdoor illusions," he concluded.

Earlier, introducing Cartik, Dolly Thakore pointed out that apart from being a programme manager at Wipro Technologies, Cartik was also a .conjuror, hypnotist, mentalist, cardician, escapologist, musician (he played both the sitar and the guitar), vocalist, actor, philanthropist and multi-entertainer".

The vote of thanks was proposed by Pradeep Saxena.

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