Where in the world am I today?: New Delhi, India
I got an unexpected treat on a visit to Dilli Haat where I encountered three Indian ‘Street Performers’ who were obviously brought in to entertain for a group of VIP visitors – a sort of ‘mini’ corporate event. Wikipedia does a pretty good job of describing Dilli Haat as:
“Dilli Haat is a combination food plaza and craft bazaar located in the heart of Delhi…There are also stalls of crafts from all over India, and from a variety of cultural traditions of India.”
It’s a great spot to find decent quality crafts from all over india which makes it a perfect stop for visiting dignitaries.
It was pretty clear that these three performers were waiting to deliver a quick hit of Indian Colour so I stuck around the gate to see what was going to happen. I’ve done my share of this sort of gig in Canada, quite a few in Whistler actually where you’re brought in for a corporate event to amuse and entertain guests as they enter the banquet hall, then provide close up table performances and or a full performance for the evening so I totally ‘got’ what was going on.
Sure enough, about five minutes later the performers get the signal that the VIPs had arrived, the drummer kicks it up a notch, the horse guy starts galloping around (no El Gleno mind you) and the lady starts dancing around. The VIPs are ushered through the main gates and receive a flower garland around their neck and a bindi on their foreheads… Boom, instant color and photo-op! The street performers then scrambled into the bazar and raced ahead to the next performance location.
This next location was where the ‘Fire Breathing‘ Performance took place and judging from the smell of the flame and residual fuel that didn’t burn off the guy was using kerosene for the blowing… I always wonder about the long term side effect of putting that stuff into your body and this guy wasn’t skimping on the flames…
As I walked around the venue I ran into that group of performers a couple of other times and it certainly seemed like the India equivalent to gigs I’ve done in North America. Pretty cool to fly all the way around the world and run into a very similar event to those I’ve done at home and rather fun to be able to sit back and not have to panic about being out there shaking it for the client as I preferred being the spectator as opposed to the performer on that particular evening.
