Slum Magician Claims Rope Trick Success

The Indian rope trick is often described as the world's greatest illusion - yet a man in the slums of Delhi claims he can do it. In fact, not just one man - but two.

First, the trick: it involves a rope being made to rise upwards and then once rigid, a young boy is encouraged to climb to the top. In Indian folklore he disappeared at the top only to reappear after being called by the magician.

In the more elaborate versions, the magician himself climbs the rope after the boy and also disappears. An array of severed limbs are then thrown down, the magician returns to earth, collects the limbs in a covered basket and the boy magically reappears unharmed.

Most magicians believe the trick to be impossible and back in 1934, the Magic Circle offered several hundred guineas to anyone who could do it.

Now, in a deprived area of the Indian capital, at least two men claim they can do the infamous trick. The first and possibly the most well known is a man called Ishamuddin Khan. There are pictures of him performing the trick on the internet and he first got noticed when he baffled an audience in 1995.

When we met him in Katputli, the puppeteers' colony in Delhi, he demanded some ninety thousand rupees (about £1,200) to replicate it for us - a figure which was out of our budget.

Instead we found Hasan Khan - apparently no relation - who offered to do the trick for the much more modest fee of £460. We turned up at the scrubland near his one-roomed home to find a crowd had already gathered.

A table was set out and he warmed up his audience by making eggs disappear, as well as producing water from apparently nowhere. A bamboo frame was then produced and Hasan announced he was going to make himself disappear inside it.

It was placed on the ground, Hasan climbed in, his head was covered and his father Anardin shook a traditional Indian musical instrument called the dumru and played the flute.

Minutes later he dropped the cloth and plunged his hands into the apparently empty bamboo frame. It would appear, no Hasan.

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