Magician OP Sharma Junior (centre) rides a bike blindfolded on Dakbungalow Road on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 5: Magician O.P. Sharma Junior treated commuters on the city roads to a unique spectacle on their way to work this morning. The magician covered his eyes with dough and wore a black hood and rode a motorbike from Kankerbagh to Rabindra Bhavan (around 4km) in half-an-hour.

Sharma Junior and his father, O.P. Sharma Senior, have been entertaining the audience with their magic for the past month at Rabindra Bhavan. They perform two shows from Monday to Saturday and three shows on Sundays.

The father-son duo have brought cats and rabbits out of their hats, cut members of their troupe into halves and rejoined them. They have also suspended members of the audience mid air.

However, what Sharma Junior did today would have made even Harry Houdini take off his hat.

The journey began at 9am from Chandan Automobiles — a Hero Honda showroom. Sharma Junior covered Chiriyatand flyover, Exhibition Road, New Dakbungalow Road, Dak Bungalow crossing, SP Verma Road, Mauryalok Complex, Income Tax roundabout and Beer Chand Patel Path.

His ride: A Hero Honda CBZ bike.

Commuters on the road were stunned by the performance. Many of the commuters who were rushing to office stopped midway to watch the stunt.

Pooja Jha, who was on her way to office, said: “I find this really amazing. It is dangerous yet he performed it to perfection.” Jha added that to make the experience memorable, she took pictures of the performance on her mobile. She was not alone, many flipped out their cellphones to click photographs.

Elucidating the reasons for performing this feat, Sharma Junior said: “I have performed this event earlier as well, not only in India but in eight different countries. Through this act, I try to instruct people to be alert, concentrate and abide by the traffic rules when they ride a bike. I followed traffic rules even though I was blindfolded.”

One traffic norm that the magician, however, skipped was wearing a helmet during the ride.

On being asked how he prepared for such a dangerous stunt, he said: “Before performing such a stunt, I take the help of self hypnotism. That means I hypnotise myself. It is a dangerous trick but for magicians, it is not as tough as it seems to others.”

He added that he had been performing this stunt for nearly 18 years, since he was a teenager.

Hero Honda organised the event to promote their products. Anand Kumar, the sales manager at the Hero Honda showroom, said: “An event like this is the best way to promote a product. Those who purchased a CBZ bike in the past month have been given tickets for the magic shows at Rabindra Bhavan.”