The teacher had a plan. Her students were learning English, so every trick I did would be translated into Hindi by a different child.
If I did ten tricks, ten students got a turn.
Each one stood up, listened to my English, and turned it into Hindi for the rest of the class. When a student got a word wrong, they all laughed, including the one who made the mistake. It was good practice for them, and they thought it was fun.
That was one classroom in New Delhi, India. Here is how I got there.
The Golden Triangle
I booked this trip on my own, two weeks in March 2023. I flew from JFK to Delhi, about 16 hours in the air.
Once I landed, I hired a driver and a tour guide. They took me around what they call the Golden Triangle: New Delhi to Agra, Agra to Jaipur, and back up to New Delhi. Put those three cities on a map and they make a triangle.
A city under the bridges
In New Delhi, I visited several of the slums.
Some of the biggest roads in the city run on concrete bridges 12 and 15 lanes wide. Underneath them, families build homes out of whatever they can scrape together. I was told about 150,000 people live under those bridges. Every one of them is a squatter.
I am fascinated by people who live in conditions like that. What amazed me was how many of them were happy. Logically, you would expect people living under a highway to be miserable. That is not what I saw.
Magic in the classroom
I did shows in schools in and around New Delhi and Jaipur, and several more right in the slums of Delhi. The schools don't have an auditorium or a gym where the kids come together, so I went from classroom to classroom. The audiences were small, one class at a time.
There were a few satellite dishes, but I never saw a television set. As far as I could tell, most of these kids had never seen a professional entertainer of any kind. They watched every trick like it was the first one they had ever seen. Maybe it was.
Forty kids and a lot of bread
One school made its own bread, and they taught me how. It is a round, flat bread, like a pita, with great flavor. I got my hands in the dough and helped make it.
Then I bought a pile of it. About 40 or 50 children sat with me at tables outside, and some sat on the floor, and we ate bread together. Each piece cost about 10 or 12 cents, so feeding all of them cost almost nothing. The kids were so grateful. I don't think they get bread every day.
Holi
My guide took me to the home of a married couple, both college professors. They were hosting a celebration for Holi, the Hindu festival of colors.
On Holi, people show gratitude and joy by throwing dry powdered color at their friends, their family, and even strangers on the street. Someone walks up to you and smears color all over your face. I have a photograph of me with my face completely covered. It is one of my favorite memories of the trip.
There were musicians playing traditional Indian music. Women danced with stacks of clay pots balanced on their heads. They never dropped one, and they never broke one.
I did a little magic for the guests. There were people there from Colombia, Belgium and Denmark, all of us in one living room in New Delhi, sharing their holiday.
The year India passed China
That spring, India's population passed China's. India became the most populated country on Earth.
They are very proud people.
Sunrise at the Taj Mahal
My guide had me at the Taj Mahal before sunrise. For a couple of US dollars more, we skipped the line and walked in while it was still dark.
The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. It took about 20 years to finish. The white marble is inlaid with thousands of semi-precious stones.
Then the sun came up, and the whole building started to change color. Pink first. The sky went to vivid reds and oranges, and the stones in the marble caught the light and sparkled as the sun moved.
There was a sign there that I loved. It warned foreign tourists not to make direct eye contact with the monkeys, because the monkeys take it as a sign of aggression. The monkeys were in the trees around the lawn, along with wild parrots in colors I had only ever seen in pet shops.
Then I got to go inside. Not everyone who visits the Taj Mahal does. The beauty in there was breathtaking, and I got to see the gorgeous detail up close. I felt very privileged.
What I took home
India is a fascinating country. What stays with me is the people under those bridges, who had almost nothing and still smiled at a stranger. And a classroom full of kids who laughed at their own mistakes and kept going.