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A few crumbling mud houses dot the vast expanse of the Yamunas banks.

A few crumbling mud houses dot the vast expanse of the Yamunas banks. Children run around the fields and women hurriedly slap cakes of dung on to the walls. This is the setting for an open air play at Badarpur Khadar,a village on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.

The theatre group,Pandies,is here to stage Wedlock,a play on marriages,the problems couples face and how they tide over them. The audience,mostly men and children,sits transfixed as the narrator takes them through the plotthat of a young couple who fall in love,get married and then go through a tumultuous phase before finally getting back together. The play ends with a round of loud claps,cheers and whistles.

About thousand families live in the Muslim majority village of Badarpur Khadar. And because its sandwiched between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh,the village attracts the attention of neither. It has no schools,no hospitals,no electricity and no roads.

Sanjay Kumar,founder of Pandies,says,We came here because the children of this village get no education and no entertainment. We want to involve the villagers so that we come to know of their problems, he says.

Pandies,which was registered in 1993,has been performing in slums,far-off villages and at railway stations. They even conducted theatre workshops at Nithari village,site of the infamous Nithari killings.

Theatre helps children improve their self-esteem. The kids in this village have no means of education and entertainment. They have low self-esteem. Through theatre,we involve them better.

Most of the children here dont go school as the nearest one is in Mirpur,UP,a good 1-1.5 hours away. Our theatre group wants to highlight the plight of this village and voice their concerns, says Anuradha Marwah,a member of Pandies.

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Play right

A few crumbling mud houses dot the vast expanse of the Yamunas banks.

A few crumbling mud houses dot the vast expanse of the Yamunas banks.