I>Creating social awareness through street plays at the railway station has been the self- adopted mission of these railway employees

The audience sure was a mixed one comprising tourists, porters, rickshaw-wallahs, beggars, passer byes and almost the entire cross section of the society. But that was exactly who the actors were endeavouring to reach out to. And as the characters, Madaari, Jamoora, Assistant and Gangoo as depicted by railway employees- Y K Singh, Balkrushna Kamble, Guru Sona and Kiran Hojage launched into their act, the appluase and appreciation quite matched, which any performance in a swanky auditorium would have garnered. Moving beyond their roles and duties, the foursome have been doing street plays in Pune station area addressing wide array of issues such as- railway safety, policies of Indian Railways, hazards of drinking and driving, dowry and recently swine flu, for sometime now.

So while the Railway’s decision to extend Pune station platforms is quite recent, this Railway staff has been actively and efficiently utilising their workspace as a platform for creative and awareness-related activities for years.

“Our whole approach towards the projects has been educative. Railway station is one place where countless people visit on a daily basis. What other than the station could be the best place to reach out to masses? From simplest of the messages such as- not to buy eatables sold on platforms by strangers to changed policies of Railways such as changed deadlines of Tatkal timings, importance of not traveling without tickets from the point of view of safety of the nation, cleanliness at stations and so on, we have tried to reach out through the medium of plays. In fact moving on, we have also presented plays portraying the hazards of drinking and driving,” says Singh.

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