When we think of magic, most of us think of easy parlour tricks, and not about a career. But to teen magician Zenia Bhumgara, magic is life. Growing in a house full of magic, watching her father, Mhelly Bhumgara, touring and entertaining hundreds and assisting her sister Pearl since she was four, Zenia insists magic was only a natural progression to her interests.
Her passion and enthusiasm for this offbeat career paid off last week when she was awarded the prestigious Merlin award by the International Magicians Association in Mumbai last week. The Merlin is to magicians what the Oscar is to films.
The association selects a handful of people worldwide each year to bestow this honour. Toni Hassini, chief executive officer of the IMA, came to Mumbai to present her the award for the best female teenage magician of India.
As a first year student of the Bachelor of Mass Media course from Jai Hind College (Mumbai), she acknowledges that balancing her magic career and education is a tough balancing act, one that she’s been perfecting for the past 10 years.
Her travels have taken her the world over — from performing for schoolchildren hit by the tsunami in Tokyo to performing for her idol David Copperfield in New York — something most teenagers only dream of.
Internet influxThe Internet has democratised in many ways who performs magic and where they learn it from, she astutely observed, and has led to a new influx of magicians; the Indian magic community is brimming with this fresh energy. For her though, magic is a way to bring happiness to people, and she is always happy to have it included in her quotidian life.
This articulate young woman sees the Merlin as an important milestone in her life, but she has set her sights on something a lot more ambitious: she dreams of one day performing in her solo show at Los Angeles. Given her trailblazing career and fierce determination, that day doesn’t seem far away.
