Jewel Aich

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Jewel Aich is a renowned Bangladeshi magician and bānsurī. He has been described as the leading Bangladeshi magician.^[1]

1 Early life
2 Magic
3 Bansari
4 Special Works
5 Awards
6 External Links
7 References

[edit] Early life

Jewel Aich was born in the village of Shomdekathi in Shorupkathi Thana in the Barisal district. His father B.K. Aich was a businessman. Jewel was the fifth of nine children's.^[2]

Aich was very introverted in his early life according to his own accounts. He also suffered a serious head pain which kept him from playing with his friends. The art of magic attracted him very early in his life. He first saw magic performed by a gypsy man who came to the family house with his company.^[3] Soon afterwards a circus party came to a nearby village. Aich went there and saw a man demonstrate a trick that apparently involved cutting the neck of a fellow performer. Aich wanted to work out how the trick was done and emulate it. After returning home, he set about making a special knife and later demonstrated it to his friends.^[4] Jewel was also interested in a type of flute called the Bansari, which he had heard being played by a neighbour in his village. Aich first learnt to play with his neighbour Nitai, who gave him his only flute to practice.^[5] He also took grammatical training from his village friend Poritosh Mondol. On finishing his primary education in his village he went to town to study in high school. There he suffered a serious injury during a sporting event when he was hit in the head by a discus.^[6] When he finished school and went to college his name had already spread through his home district for his art, magic, statue and flute. He went to Jogonnath College in Dhaka.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War he and his family suffered the looting of their home and had to flee to Kolkata. Aich then joined the war of liberation and took part in (Shommukh Juddho). When he became sick he took a non-combatant role including teaching students in refugee camps and inspiring the fighters. When people came to know about his magician identity they took him to meet with their local magicians.^[7]

[edit] Magic

He was attracted to magic very early in his life and, after seeing magic in circuses, he decided to become a magician. His first performance was with a simple wooden trick knife, with which he pretended to cut the leg of one of his friends. His interest on magic grew larger when he read the books of Bonde Ali Miah. But the idea of showing magic as a gentleman came to him when he read a book by the famous magician P. C. Sorcar.^[8] He made a name for his magic along with his other artistic works very early in his life. In 1997Abdullah Abu Sayeed, a famous TV presenter of that time, asked him to perform magic in his show.^[9] Aich was interested and came to Dhaka to perform for television. His magic pleased the audience and he continued to work in TV programs. In 1979 Mostafa Kamal Wahid showed his clippings to Americans and they were impressed and invited him to their country. In 1981 the Society of American Magicians invited him to America to perform in front of thousands of magicians.^[10] During his long magical career he performed in all parts of Bangladesh and the major cities of the world. He is widely regarded as one of the best magicians in recent times. He has always spoken clearly about his performances saying all of his magic is scientifically created and he makes no mysterious claim for it.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bansari

Jewel Aich had a deep passion for flute from very early in his life. Like magic the seed of this passion started in his village. In the village there were a number of flute players who caught his attention. He first learnt how to play from one of his neighbours Nitai, a poor fisherman who taught him the banshi. He also gave him his single flute so that he could practice. When Jewel went to higher school to study he met with a poor flute seller who also played very well. Afterwards he went to the town of Barishal, where he went to Shati Sen’s house to learn the flute. Despite his unbearable head which increased if he played flute, he carried on playing.^[11] During his college days he was inspired by his friends. Once his name was included in the list of performers in the college festival but he was so nervous to play in front of the girls that he failed to hold the tune. He got frustrated but his friends continued to give him support and he agreed to play again and made no mistake.^[12] He became a regular artist in the Bangladesh Betar and also played flute in the Voice of America ^[13] program. To avoid stretching his back, he made a curved Bansari so that he could play by keeping the head straight.

[edit] Special Works

Aich calls specialist doctors to come to the stage and check his assistant. Then he gave him hypnotic suggestion and bloods from his mouth are perished. Then he asked to check the pulse of the assistant and the doctors feel there is none. Then he cut his tongue in front of them. In the end the assistant of course become normal. Whenever he showed this he saw people losing their senses.^[14]

Aich took a round moving cutter and cut a stick with this. Then he took that right through the body of his wife Bipasha Aich. This trick was shown on BTV a number of times.

Aich made a famous prediction during the Cricket World Cup in 1996 before the final. Prior to that B.C. Sarkar predicted that he sat on the back of Sachin Tendulkar and guiding him to success. However Sachin failed to convert in the semi final and the people started to act as if Jewel Aich himself made the prediction. He was annoyed with this and also annoyed by the un-scientific explanation of Sarkar. So he decided to make a prediction before the final. His prediction was then sealed in front of journalists at the press club by the former Mohaporichalok of BSS and the general secretary of press club and kept in the vault of the Agrani Bank. After the final the envelop was opened again in front of the journalists by omuk. His predictions were that Sri Lanka won, that they would win by 6 or 7 wickets and Aravinda De Silva would be man of the match. All of his predictions came true. Aich then made it clear to the journalists that this was not due to miraculous power and gave an explanation.^[15]^[16]

[edit] Awards

Jewel has received a lot of prizes in his life. On June 18, 1989, he was presented with a trophy by Paul Daniels at the Hackney Empire Theatre, in London, by the Jewel Aich Celebration Committee.^[17] He was also awarded the highest prestigious award of Bangladesh Ekushey Padak.^{[citation needed]}