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Journalism of Courage
On a gloomy Wednesday,little Bobby Sarkar was busy with his make-up session at the small room of Uttaran,a drop-in centre-cum-night shelter on the Sealdah station premises. The six-year-old,a resident of Sonakhali in Basanti,was abandoned by his mother a couple of months ago. Bobby doesnt have the time to talk about his family today. He stood quietly in a queue,licking the red colour off his lips with glee,and marched with his 20 other friends towards the main gate of Sealdah station. A small stage decorated with multi-colour balloons and foot and hand prints of the little ones,accompanied by a crowd from the nearby slums,awaited them.
And the wait was worth it as the children,who live on the platforms of the railway station,performed a 10-minute play and the 300-odd gathering,along with the thousands passing by after a glimpse,applauded their effort.
Titled Platform Beat,the event organised by Kolkata Sanved and CINI (Urban Unit),was supported by the India Foundation for the Arts.
Sumana Chandrasekhar,a programme executive of IFA,who came all the way from Bangalore to witness the first performance of this initiative with children who live on the platforms,was elated. It was such a funny yet heart-warming performance. We at the IFA support interesting projects with special grants. This is perfect connection between art and development,so the moment Kolkata Sanved approached us we agreed to support it, she said.
Sealdah station manager P K Sengupta sat patiently throughout the performance. There are two shelter homes for these boys on the station premises largely because of his proactiveness. Even if a new station manager comes after me,these initiatives wont stop as they have been officially approved. We have allocated rooms for the kids according to age group and there are daily announcements about the presence of CINI in aid of these children, Sengupta said.
A play within a play is a favourite tool of many thespians worldwide. The kids attempted something similar. It was scene of a station within a station. And a boys dream of a life where he excels in education,is away from the perils of life on a platform and desires to help kids of his age. Under the mentorship of dance therapists from Sanved and the CINI staff,they prepared for nine months for this performance.
It wasnt easy in the beginning. According to a CINI worker,it was difficult to bring the kids for rehearsals in the initial days.
Slowly they started turning up and showed a lot of interest in the performance. I used to take videos of rehearsals and show them the clips,which created enthusiasm. The last rehearsal they did was from 10 in the morning to six in the evening with just a couple of breaks, he said.
Jharna Naskar,a dance therapy trainer at Sanved,felt there was gradual increase in the level of discipline among the kids.
The project also plans to build community culture centres to support the sustainability of artistic engagement for the platform children.
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