It’s Magic! – Jadugar Anand

In honour of PC Sorcar’s 104 birth anniversary, Visakhapatnam is celebrating World Magicians’ Day today. 25 magicians are congregating at Premasamajam Kalavedika and an all-women Magic Diva show will be hosted at Kalabharathi. On this occasion Yo! Vizag shares with you one of our previous cover stories with the renowned Jadugar Anand.

He has been hailed as the ‘World’s fastest Magician’, earned the title, ‘Magician of the East’ (Montreal, 1982), set new world records, picked up gold medals in Hollywood (1978) and in Brussels (1980), is a Guinness record holder for performing the maximum shows – more than 27,000 shows in over 36 countries… he is Jadugar Anand.

Anand Avasthi, more popularly known as Jadugar Anand was born on January 3rd, 1952. His fascination with magic stemmed from his childhood enthrallment of a particular street magician who would bring out jalebi’s and laddoo’s from thin air and later offer the spellbound child the sweetmeats. When that performer changed his venue, little Anand went berserk and tried his best to get the sweets out of magic. He went to many amateur magicians and other baba’s who claimed to have divine powers, but for Anand, none matched the skill of that particular magician.

His father, a doctor, rubbished any talk of magic or magicians in the house. “I was literally thrown out of his house around four times because of my interest in magic,” reminisces Jadugar Anand. But despite such objections and deterrents he never gave up, ‘bal hutt’ or childhood stubbornness is what kept his interest alive. After his matriculation, he continued his studies in Indore for his Masters in English, but with his heart and soul leaning towards magic, he began to learn new tips and tricks from magicians and by exchanging his ideas with amateurs.

At the age of 19, deeply influenced by Harry Houdini, who escaped from box after being tied by chains and dropped into the Thames River in just 6 minutes, Anand attempted a similar feat in the River Narmada in just 40 seconds; for which he picked his first Guinness world record. Since then, fame, fortune and international performances have been this self-made man’s mainstay. His next record breaking event was the blindfolded bike ride from Indore to Bhopal, a distance of 200 kms, which he covered in less than 180 minutes.

Jadugar Anand is the president of All India Magic Federation which provides a platform for upcoming magicians and gives financial aids to them. He plans to set up academies in all major cities including Hyderabad wherein modern-day magic as well as age-old tricks will be taught to budding magicians and amateurs. His son Akash is also a magician who broke his father’s record by escaping from a box totally chained in less than 14 seconds. He is an MBA graduate from Symbiosis in Pune and plans to follow his father’s footsteps.

Jadugar Anand closes off saying “It was just my desire and hard work which got me to this position and anyone who aspires wholeheartedly can become or reach the position he wants,” and he suggests everyone read the book or watch the video called ‘The Secret’ which speaks about the law of attraction and how energy passes through the mind unknowingly.