The Hindu Business Line : `Underwater escape' by young magician

This was what Akash, a 29-year-old management graduate and son of magician `Jadugar' Anand, did at Hussiansagar Lake here on Sunday. Akash could do the feat, popularly known as `underwater escape' in the world of magic, in 15 seconds in front of media persons and a curious crowd of about 500.

"I was nervous but glad that I could finally do it," a beaming Akash told newspersons after performing the feat. "My father could do it in 40 seconds, when he was 19 years of age in 1970 in the Narmada River. I am happy to break his record," he said.

According to Mr Anand, his son's feat was the third underwater escape ever performed in the world. "The first underwater escape was performed by Harry Houdini in 1912 in East River in New York in which he took 60 seconds to escape. I had done it in 1970 in 40 seconds and now Akash broke my record," he said.

For Akash, it was a dream come true. "The sheer pleasure of taking risk prompted me to do the feat," he told Business Line.

He is now looking forward to have himself tied to a moving train to travel between any two stations. "The only problem is obtaining permission from the Government," he said.

On the transition from a management graduate to magician, Akash said he wanted to fuse management principles with magic. "Both need high level of concentration, innovation and risk. Further, the family tradition of magic also promoted me to learn magic," he said.

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