The Resurrection of Ringmaster Chakravarthy

As a child growing up in India, he ran away from home and joined the circus. After a freak aerial accident nearly ended his illustrious thirty-year career, he poured his life savings into one last soul-soaring hurrah.

Photos by Naveen PM

On a torrid Sunday afternoon in a suburb of Chennai, India, spectators, mostly families with young children, start to trickle in slowly to catch the first show of the day. While finishing his lunch, K. Chakravarthy, 48, asks one of the boys to start the generator.