Street Entertainers of Madras

     In the early forties of the last century, Chennai aka Madras
was a vibrant city. India’s population in those days was around
30 crores–a fourth of what it is now. Streets were not over-
crowded and traffic very leisurely.One can move about without being
nudged and  pushed around. The most important change I notice now is the absence
of street entertainers.We had plenty of them  in those days.
Here are some that I recollect with some nostalgia.

**A midget. hardly three feet tall was the tiger in the ‘Aadu Puli Attam’
A lime kept on the ground was the lamb that he was after, growling
and roaring as he paced around the lime till  he finally caught the lime
in his mouth in one wild sweep/ Applause!

**There was this turbaned chap with a monkey on leash.He used
to have a stick  which he kept tapping on the ground as if to
warn the monkey to behave. He would in a sing-song tone, keep
muttering “Gudhida Rama, Gudhida!’ and the simian would do all
sorts of dances and pranks to the amusement of the crowd.Applause!

**And then there was that fat madrigal singer. Whether it was Margazhi
or any other month this Andal admirer  would sing only  pasurams from
Thiruppavai in a stentorian voice. Orthodox men (including my dad)
and women were his permanent admirers and they would fill up his cloth
bag with raw rice generously

**I remember also a woman called ‘rosy’–an itinerant beggar . The
rickshaw pullers  of Egmore literally worshipped her and would consider
their day successful if she agrees to travel in their rickshaw  even
if only for  five  minutes. They believed she brought  them luck

**.The most colourful of all was the ‘gudu Gudu PAndi’-draped  in
bedsheets and colorful cloths of all kinds; he was a  real sight. He had
in his hand a miniature  two-sided drum with which he would make a
constant clackety-clack and make scary  predictions of which the
housewives were a little wary.

***************Those days are gone–gone for ever!