Memories that jump across the Great Wall

Mumbai: Mumbai’s magic sisters, Pearl Bhumgara and Zenia Bhumgara are in full thrill. Along with their mother Kaizad and father, Mhelly Bhumgara, these magic girls are just back from FISM the magicians’ Olympiad held in Beijing. If watching world famous magicians was thrilling, more exciting were surprise meeting they had with a few Indian magicians in the land of China.

“We could meet magical friends, Dayanithi, Vasant, B.K. Mishra and Sumit Chioa”, Pearl tells with zest. “There were 2500 magicians from all over the world”, adds Zenia the younger with a striking childish smile. There was even a magic shop run by magician Milind and his wife among the stalls run by world famous dealers.
At 4.30pm on 26th of July, when curtains raised for the inaugural thump, everyone anticipated an acrobatic display by the orgnisers, China Acrobats Association. But proving all such notions wrong, came an exciting magic show by Chinese girls, Huang Zhen, Wshen Juan, Zhao Yuying and Xu Fengmei.

On top of the magic world: Grand Prix winners of FISM, Hungarian magician Soma (left) in Stage Magic and Canadian magician Shawn Farquhar in Close-up category.

On the 31st July, when curtains came down for the magical Olympiad, Pearl and Zenia were a bit disappointed. Then found solace in the fact that the FISM will come with more magical surprises in 2012 in Blackpool, England.

The winners

Out of the 100 magicians who underwent tests at various levesl, only nine topped. Out of them only eight were qualified for stepping on to the final battle gounds. They, from left, are (age and State within brackets): Zenia Bhumgara (10, Maharashtra) third in Junior conjuring, third in Best Entertainer; Soumita Bag (10, West Bengal) second in Junior Conjuring; Karun Krishna (14, Bangalore) first in Junior conjuring; Rakesh Shyam (34, Tamil Nadu) Third in Close up; Edmundo Da Kunha (38, Goa) second in Close up; Kudroli Ganesh (36, Karnataka) First in Close up, first in Best Entertainer; Palladam M. Yona (46, Tamil Nadu) second in Best Entertainer and Third in Conjuring Seniors; Dhayanithi (32, Tamil Nadu) second in Conjuring Seniors and Hashim M.P. (35, Kerala) first in Conjuring Seniors.