Assam: Magician Gopinath Muthukad Mesmerizes Crowd of Techies at IIT Guwahati

Guwahati: The crowd of aspiring techies at the IIT Campus here was swept under a mesmeric spell as internationally acclaimed magician and illusionist Gopinath Muthukad transported them into time travel through his hypnotic tricks and even cracked open a glass cube by asking them to fix their gaze on it as a red flower popped out from inside, stated a press release.

Muthukad, who is criss-crossing the country with the ‘Inclusive India’ campaign carrying the message of supporting people with different abilities, mesmerized the young crowd when he called some of them on the stage and asked them to participate in a few items that he performed.

Later, he asked them to flip through some newspapers kept there. To their amazement, they read about his just-performed tricks in the newspapers carrying today’s edition. At the same time, he made them believe that these had occurred one and a-half years ago and that too in their presence at that time! The write-ups from the newspapers of early 2023 described the tricks they had joined in only a few minutes ago. Surprisingly, these reports carried their names and that of today’s place and date.

Amid the raucous applause that followed, the magician explained his tricks. “It’s a case of time travel. Of mind-reading. If you want to include certain portions of existing matter, you can do it with willpower.” Muthukad, a recipient of the coveted Merlin Award (2011) instituted by the US-based International Magicians, then produced another spellbound performance. He asked the crowd to look keenly at a glass cube in front of them; it cracked open, freeing the red flower inside it. The trick substantiated the magician’s core message: social inclusivity can break open the barriers for people with disabilities.

“The rose that sprang out symbolizes the innocent soul of any newborn. All of us deserve a decent life; only that all must get equal opportunities,” he said. Highlighting his motto of magic as an art for social reformation, he said, “There is an imperative need for us to make people with physical disabilities feel that they are part of the mainstream. If we do so, the results will be miraculous. My magic bridges such vulnerable groups with society at large.” To Kerala-born Muthukad, those with physical disabilities suffer in three ways: physical limitations, social exclusivity, and emotional insufficiency.

“The sad fact is that such a situation is stark in India. There are countries where a blind person can travel on his or her own with the help of a white cane for any distances without relying on fellow passengers. It should not remain an ideal for our country. There must be equal opportunities for everyone,” says the 60-year-old magician, who heads an NGO named Different Art Centre (DAC) which is steering the mission that enjoys non-financial support from the Union Government’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

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