In a bizarre incident that left some 300 candidates and some officials baffled, an eagle swooped down and snatched a hall ticket from a candidate moments before a Kerala Public Service Commision (PSC) test commenced at a school in Kasaragod district of Kerala on Thursday (April 10, 2025) morning.

“Do you know the Kamal film Apoorva Sagodharargal? He shot it at our theatre. With us. It was magical,” says Lakshmanan Chakyiath, the 77-year-old production manager of Gemini Circus. Referencing this 1989 tragic Tamil classic set in the contrastingly exuberant world of a circus, Lakshmanan launches into a long conversation about the history of one of India’s oldest modern circuses which began in Billimoria, Gujarat in 1951. But this story of the likes of former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee having watched the performances is one that has been oft-repeated.