Childhood slips on a tightrope here

NEW DELHI: She is Jugnu. And like her namesake, this five-year-old's life also revolves around flashing lights, at the traffic signal. Born into a family of acrobats, she performs not on stage or in a stadium, but on dusty city roads. Jugnu is not the only one.
There are several children like her who perform along the under-construction stretch of Metro on Barakhamba Road, making the best of traffic which stops by.As the signal turns red, Jugnu starts playing the dholak and moves her head in circles so that the tail attached to her cap whirls.
Her three-year-old sibling, moves on the beats, sliding his tiny body through iron rings. Motive, to earn a livelihood. On job since 8 in the morning till around 7 in the evening, childhood or playtime just means more performances for them.
"I come with my mother in the bus. When I feel hungry, I perform more tricks to forget hunger. And when I am thirsty, I ask the bus drivers for water," said Jugnu with a smile on her face painted red to entertain motorists.
"I do not go to school, but can read the number of the bus I have to take to come here, and know how to count money.
Sometimes, we earn as much as Rs 300, sometimes nothing. Once in a while, gore log (foreigners) even give us Rs 100," said seven-year-old Karan, who lives in the slums of Nangla Machi.
"We all belong to the same family," he added. His mother could be seen at a distance, playing the dholak for her other kids.
"I learnt it from my brother. Mere papa bhi rassi ka khel dikhate hain (my father shows the rope trick too)," said three-year-old Johni who has six sisters and two brothers. She does not go to school but "earns for her sister's marriage".
"We came from Chhattisgarh to earn money. These kids are our only source of income. Even if we make them study, we can't pay the bribe to get them jobs.
And even at a job, they earn the same amount," reasoned Johni's mother Savita. Wearing clothes soiled by performance on bare roads, Johni still smiles.
She has not seen the world beyond her family and acrobatics, and has no dreams to move out of this. "I don't want to go to school. Mujhe khel hi karna hai (I only want to perform)."
For kids like her, childhood begins and ends with drum beats and rope tricks. And they don't expect more than Rs 40 for a day's performance.