Sarada Singha, a 45-year-old chief performer of her Kolkata based circus company, had everything going right for her until the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent nationwide lockdown forced her to become a fish vendor to manage her two-square-meal for her family. The corona spread forced shut her circus shows and she along with other members of her team are now grappling with an uncertain future and poverty. While the Nepali woman Sarada sells fish at a roadside market in Silchar, the other circus performers clowns, jugglers, trapeze players, ring masters, technicians, singers, make-up artist, guards, including her husband Ratan Singha are working as daily wage earners’ and even taking up menial jobs. The 160-member circus team, comprising performers and assistants belonging to West Bengal and Assam, came to Hailakandi (in southern Assam) in January to perform their show in famous Rabindra Mela. From Hailakandi, the circus party moved to Karinganj to perform the shows in another famous Netaji Mela in January end and then in next month to the Gandhi Mela in Silchar, a major commercial city in southern Assam, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura. Initially, our circus owner in Kolkata financially helped us, but gradually the proprietor of the D. K. Enterprise, which owns the circus troupe, expressed his helplessness forcing us to search for alternate works. But, because of the lockdown, most of our co-performers and co-workers had no work and no money. For days we starved starving. Our lives were devastated, our dreams wrecked, perished, Sarada, a lone woman vendor in the market, told IANS. Sarada’s husband Ratan Singha said that besides the 160 men and women, some of the couples have minor children. One of the performers delivered a baby earlier this month in a local government hospital in Silchar. Besides, we have two horses as part of our circus squad. During the normal working time, we feed the horses with Chola, but now we take them to a nearby river bank or field to feed the grass, Ratan told IANS. He said, Among our co-performers and co-workers, there are people belonging to the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian communities, an exceptional combination of religious diversity. For many years we have been working together as a big one family. The local administrations, clubs, NGOs and even individuals provided us with various relief materials and foods, but we need big supplies of food and money for our teammates, the middle aged Ratan with gloomy face said while explaining their distress and uncertainty.