"I'm just a little more than a metre tall -- 112 cms to be precise. When you're this short, you naturally get pointed in the direction of the nearest circus. I'm a clown. Or at least I was a clown until two years ago when I fell ill."

He tried to hang on to his job but increasingly frequent bouts of sickness finally forced him to consult the PGI doctors. "They told me surgery was the only remedy for my condition. I've had two operations and a third is due," he explains. The doctors say the next surgery will be a tricky one, but at least age is on his side... he's only 30.

However, not much else favours him: he's penniless and completely alone."Just before this ailment struck, I got married but my wife is mentally unsound. Anyway, she walked out on me assoon as I fell sick and had to leave my job. What to speak of her, my own parents, brothers and sisters have not come to see me even once. It's not because of distance because they live in Kurukshetra. They have their own compulsions; they are poor with families to support and they just don't want to come," the little clown sighs.

Sohan has been declared a poor-free patient but he still has to pay for medicines and other requirements.

The Gurdwara Sarai provides a roof over his head and something to eat but, until he recovers sufficiently to get back to work, he is absolutely broke.He's haunted by the fear that his ailment may keep him away from the circus permanently:
"I'm eighth class-fail; I have no other skill than making people laugh. You don't make a lot of money in showbiz but I love it. It feels great when the audience responds well. Clowning gave me security and I felt accepted. Suddenly that's all changed and I don't know what's going to happen to me."

But Sohan Lal is not one to give up.After all, here is a man who has turned a handicap of below-normal height into an asset. Despite pain and distress at being abandoned, Sohan has faith in God and does not ask for much.Says he: "I just want to get well soon so that I can at least support myself. My third operation is due and I have no idea where the money for medicines will come from. If God sees me through this, I will ask for nothing more."