-- Appeared in the Manipal Record in September 1994

Nobody took him seriously for last four years or so, when 21-year-old Prahlad Acharya, a student of Vaikunta Baliga College of Law practised the art of escape in his house and in solitary places. But one Sunday afternoon there he was as promised before a thousand and odd people performing his first-ever public 'Houdini Escape' in the precincts of Krishna Temple of Udupi.

Prahlad Acharya, a law student, studied Houdini with a great enthusiasm and vowed to emulate him. Try, he did with great flourish but the effort did not end there. He enthralled the first time thousands of people, and the second time several more thousands added to his club.

The first show of Escape he gave was in the Madhwa Sarovar of Udupi Krishna Temple. He was first blindfolded, then handcuffed, tied with a chain and also wrapped tightly in a bag. This entire bag was then put in a wooden box and duly locked. All this happened in front of several thousand onlookers and to the audience of few chosen town seniors. The box was then immersed into the Sarovar which is at least 20 feet deep.

All who gathered watched intently for a minute, some of them prayed and some of them prayed and some of them held their breath. But Lo and Behold! Right at the strike of the first minute after the immersion of the box there was Prahlad waving and smiling and unscathed up on a corner of the Sarovar to the cheer of the people all around the place.

That was the first time such a breathtaking event had taken place in the entire Dakshina Kannada which made the College proud. On the second time his act was more lethal. A slight mistake and Prahlad would become a frozen toast in front of nearly 2000 people. This dangerous act involved even a 400 watt electricity fed into the water in a huge glass tank in which Prahlad was tied into and drowned with his hands cuffed and the lid of the box secured with double locks. Here also he emerged unscathed within a minute. The roar of the applause might have disguised the hundreds of sighs of relief in the crowd, but for Prahlad it seemed like child's play, so he told Manipal Record later.

He now plans bigger and better tricks like dropping into sea from a Helicopter with his hands tied and enclosed in a box and swimming to shore even before the copter returns to the shore. Vanishing the 17 crore rupees worth Golden Chariot of Krishna Mutt in front of thousands of people, and also serving a social cause by riding blindfolded from Mangalore to Goa form some of his ambitious plans.

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