Death Defying Circus

A couple weeks ago, in a small hill town called Kumily, we saw a traveling daredevil show where motorcycles and small cars raced around inside a big, wood and steel frame cylinder. Spectators stand a few rows deep on a ledge along the top and look down into a 25 foot deep x 40 foot wide cup. The motos and cars ride up the walls using centrifugal force.

I'd seen one of these shows with just motos back in 1994 and was duly impressed but I would never have believed you'd get a car - even a small car - up the walls of one of these narrow bowls. They start off the show with one guy driving a moto round and round at high speed....and HIGH SOUND - (They run a straight pipe right out of the cylinder for added thrill effect. This gets the crowd's attention.) What really got my attention was the way the entire structure swayed and shook as the moto raced below us. I was also more than slightly terrified by the fact that a rickety rail was all that separated us from the flying racer in the event anything went wrong. At first I wouldn't get within a full pace of the rail.
(You can see the blurred image of the moto in the center of the photo right on the top seam of the wall.)
As the show progresses, they run two, then three motorcycles up in the cylinder at the same time. Each rider tests his skill and the crowd's ability to keep calm by performing stunts - riding no-handed, crossing legs over the bike, standing one-legged on the seat, riding hand-in-hand with two bikes alongside each other...all the while the racket and shaking feeling like we were standing inside a dreadful machine shop.

Periodically, they stopped before their next number. Near the end, when they brought out the "big guns", I saw one of those things that ellicted a, "you have got to be kidding me" from my own mouth. A young boy of maybe 4 or 5 years had been standing with the drivers. Nonchalantly, he opened the passenger door of the car below on the right and climbed in. Moments later, everyone else mounted a bike or got in a car.....and off they went.

For the next several minutes, two cars and three motorcycles raced around the cramped bowl. One trick had a moto race along parallel on the downside of a car. Don't ask me how they did it but he stood on the upper peg of his bike, lay across the hood of the car and joined both outstretched hands with those of the car driver reaching from above. As if negotiating all that wasn't enough, one of the car drivers (the one with the child inside!), crawled up and drove around standing upright outside of his window using his feet on the wheel. This show cost us 20 Rupees each . . . about 50 cents, American. I'd gotten my money's worth and then some.

For those who wanted a final thrill, the other car driver, also standing outside his window and driving with feet, raced along right at the rail at the top of the bowl. Indians with 10 Rupee notes in their hands leaned over the rail and this guy . . . this James Bond of India . . . reached over at high speed and snatched them. I handed over two.