Keekli Reporter, 30th May, 2015, Shimla
The overall drama trophy is bagged by Kasturi House and the best actor award is received by Rahul Takur; House standings and best performers from each house — 1st Chinar, and Ashita; 2nd Kasturi, and Rahul; 3rd Toshqui, and Anshu and 4th Shipkila, and Abhay.
A very enlightening and educative morning was planned by the students of St Thomas School as they participated in the Helen Jerwood Inter-House Hindi Drama Competition. The plays selected for the day touched upon some very important topics such as ragging, exploitation and selfishness, mother’s love and emotions and special or handicap children, all very much relevant and commonly seen in our society today. The chief guest for the occasion was Kamal Sharma, Prof. Hindi Dept, HPU Shimla, who also presided as a judge and other judges for the event were Seema Sharma, Coordinator BEd, Laurete Public School Shimla, Shimla and Praveen Chandla, Asst. Director Hindi Language Dept., CPRI, Shimla. School Principal Vidhupriya Chakravarty warmly greeted all present and gave the details about the event.
The first play was performed by the students of Kasturi House who enacted the play titled “Ragging”, wherein a story of a boy is narrated — how he aspires to be a doctor to fulfill his own and his parents dreams and how they are nearly shattered when he is ragged by his seniors when he joins a medical college. Aman, the protagonist, is faced with a dilemma of how to overcome the mental and physical torture that he faces through the harsh behaviour of his seniors. After a spiritual awakening he voices his thoughts and motivates his peers to stand up against ragging and think wisely. The character of Aman was performed by Rahul, who gave a brilliant performance and also bagged the overall best actor award.
The next play of the morning was “Kafan” by Munshi Premchand, which was performed by the students of Shipkila House. It is the story of two villagers, Madhav and Ghisu who are very selfish and selfless souls and would do anything to get that extra drink and spend their days doing nothing. When Madhav’s wife dies of labour pain, they raise hue and cry with the villagers as they don’t have money even to buy a shroud for his wife. Despite the fact that the villagers give them money for her last rituals, still both father and son spend the money on drinking and cursing others. The remarkable portrayal of the story by the actors was quite amazing.
The third play titled “Katputli” was performed by the Toshqui House. It is a story of a girl who is deserted at birth by her rich parents as she is dumb and deaf and is then found by a poor man who earns his living by performing puppet acts. He strives to keep her well and provide for her medical needs but with time because of his insufficient resources is also ready to return the child to her parents so that she is taken good care of. His love and devotion towards his daughter helps the girl in recovering her voice and at the same time sends a strong message to the society that being a privileged child is not a bane, rather they should be cherished and cared for with love. Quite a few heart rendering performances were seen by the actors on the stage.
The last play of the morning titled “Ma” was performed by the students of Chinar House. A very touching subject as a mother is the heart and soul of every human being at every step of life. Mother’s love, devotion and sacrifices for their children are often ignored and at times only realized when it is too late. This play was a reflection of today’s generations fast paced life, wherein they are too busy earning their livelihood that they completely forget about the feelings of their parents and elders and at many a time mistreat them.
Speaking on the occasion Seema Sharma said that when performing on stage, it should be with the whole heart and soul and importance should be paid on the theme of the play. It is essential to act well but at the same time the theme of the play should not be lost in the performances. She wished the students well and recited one of her own written poems emphasizing her viewpoint.
Praveen Chandla too lauded the efforts of the teachers and students for choosing such deep, meaningful plays, which were perfectly performed by the children given their age and experience. The confidence shown by the students was quite amazing, and he further added that whatever was enacted on the stage should also be adopted in real life too. The chief guest too praised the efforts of the school management and the students for putting up some great acts and was amazed to see such mature performances.
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