How the scourge of ragging is getting deeper into our society and weakening the educational system was appropriately highlighted in the play “Ragging” that was staged recently at New Delhi's Shri Ram Centre.
Mukesh Verma, writer-director of the play, said on the occasion that ragging is a burning issue and merited proper attention of the society. That was one of the reasons why he opted for a subject like ragging. He hoped Delhi being a big centre of art and culture, performing here meant reaching to a huge number of people. The highly enthusiastic artistes from Lucknow were equally excited about performing in the Capital. Nadeem Sheikh, who played the lead character as Kuldeep (victim of ragging) in the play, echoed similar views on the subject.
Shattered hopes
The story in the play is presented to the audience by Kuldeep's soul who acts as a Sutradhaar in the drama. Notably, in the story, Kuldeep belongs to a very poor family. His family members lay great emphasis on his studies and count on his success which can alleviate their sufferings. Kuldeep manages to get admission in an engineering college but is victimised by his seniors, because of which he dies. His family is shattered, their only hope fallen victim to ragging.
Nadeem, a graduate from Lucknow University, said he never faced ragging during his student days. It was therefore a bit tough for him to play the character. But he worked hard, read up and talked to his friends in this regard to understand the character better.
Piyush Sharma, director of Sarvani Internationals, which produced the play, said, “Our main motive behind organising this event is to remove ragging from society and as a youth, it's our responsibility to make our society and country healthy and free of ragging.”
