National Child Award winner Aarthi Magala JM hopes to take magic beyond the entertainment level.

Expresso caught up with the young magician I had to do something new for a school cultural event.  and I was upset about not being good at arts

C A SMALLfigurine of a boy, legs and arms stick-thin and spread out, rest in peace in magician Aarthi Mangala JM’s humid hands. She gently whooshes twice over them and the figure, as if life is induced into it, rises slowly.

This could have well been a routine scene witnessed in a voodoo house, ‘resurrecting’ the spirit of someone dead. But Aarthi, a magician all of 17 years, does it effortlessly in a coffee shop and calls it science. “Science is definitely the basis for all magic,” she firmly states, dismissing maayajalam, an integral part of religion, as applied science.

For the Class XII student, magic is not about tricking people. It’s about entertaining them with the wonders of science. “And it’s not just that also.

Everything needs a purpose. My tricks are worth the time spent on it only if there is a theme or message that they convey,” she adds.

Magic with a theme is clearly her forte. It has been her trademark and Aarthi proudly declares that her work has done more than elicit laughs and awe. “I have worked in tandem with the Social Welfare Department and NGOs, who take me along when they visit villages. I incorporate themes into my trick shows and this ensures that people are hooked to our show, initially. The NGOs then takeover and spread the messages they wish to con vey,” she explains, adding that her most common set of themes include awareness about child labour, women’s rights and equality.

A National Child Award winner, Aarthi says her fascination for magic began when she was five years old. “I had to do something new for a school cultural event and I was upset about not being good at arts. That’s when my father spoke to a magician he knew, who taught me a couple of tricks. The applause I got was infectious. That still drives me to learn more, and I have worked under over a dozen magicians across the country,” says Aarthi, whose dream is to take magic beyond the entertainment and education level, and use it for healing. “Healing magic is practised in hospitals as stress busters for patients. That’s one area I’d like to explore in India,” she says.