The Girl with Magic Fingers

She is just 17-years-old but has powers to bring life to inanimate objects.

In an article titled “The Girl with Magic Fingers,” Aarthi Mangala JM is profiled on The New Indian Express today.

“A small figurine of a boy, legs and arms stick-thin and spread out, rest in peace in magician Aarthi Mangala JM’s humid hands.  She gently whooshes twice over them and the figure, as if life is induced into it, rises slowly.”

Like most magicians in India, the young magician is quick to point out her work is based on science and not black magic.

“Science is definitely the basis for all magic,” she told the paper.  Her power is not maayajalam, an integral part of religion, but applied science.

We cannot disagree with her belief that “‘magic is not about tricking people. It’s about entertaining them with the wonders of science. ‘And it’s not just that also. Everything needs a purpose. My tricks are worth the time spent on it only if there is a theme or message that they convey.’”

And take it from us — or don’t — she is good!

If you don’t trust our judgment — and that is usually a smart move — you can see for yourself by checking out the YouTube video of a recent show. It really is very good.

Aarthi is proud of her involvement with magic so far. But how did she get hooked?  At five, she needed to present something, anything, for a school cultural event and was frustrated.  Her father hooked her up with a magician friend, she learned a few effects, performed them, received applause and adulation, and voila.

“The applause I got was infectious. That still drives me to learn more, and I have worked under over a dozen magicians across the country,”  she said. It is clear from the videos that she loves the audience and the feeling is apparently mutual. We are sure she’ll be a big name in magic very soon.

She has been a darling of the media for a while.  If we are not mistaken, there was a very nice article in The Hindu from her younger days — back in 2005.

In fact, way back in the heyday of Inside Magic, we noted that the then very young Aarthi Mangala received The National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement for 2003 in the field of magic.

Eventually, Aarthi would like to use her magic skills to help healing in a very real sense.

“Healing magic is practised in hospitals as stress busters for patients,” she told the reporter.  “That’s one area I’d like to explore in India.”

Check out the full article here: The Girl with Magic Fingers.

You can see a longer video of a show Aarthi performed for Children’s Day and a bunch of other video here.

We wish we could give her a plug, but we were unable to find a web site.  Perhaps Inside Magic will start a Aarthi Mangala fan club.  We saw that someone has already written a poem in her honor so a fan page is not out of the question.