Taking centre stage: Drama for life

The next time you happen to pass by the labour camps at Sonapur, Al Quoz and Al Aweer and see or hear some workers shouting in anger or crying in pain, don't panic.

The guys are most likely enacting a scene from a play.

And the man who has injected drama into the lives of these construction workers is Dilip Paranjpe, 51, Technical Writer and Welfare Officer with Trans-gulf Electro-Mechanical LLC.

Paranjpe, from Mumbai, is also an amateur stage actor, writer and director.

Avoiding social ills

"All these social activities are aimed at weaning them away from bad habits such as alcoholism and smoking. The plays we perform are one-act comedies and we avoid more realistic dramas as [workers] need entertainment," he said.

"Incidentally, it brings Indians and Pakistanis together on one platform. There are an estimated 2,200 workers in this company. This means on an average, I celebrate 100 to 200 birthdays of workers every month," he added.

For workers, acting has changed their lives. "People know me now since I have acted in plays," said Mohammad Ameen, 47, from Pakistan, who is a transport coordinator in the firm. "Drama is a great stress reliever," he added.

Building confidence

Saeed Khattak, 30, a plumber, said: "I have made more friends in the company as well as at work sites after I acted in a couple of plays. Acting has made me a more confident person."

Khattak is proud of his role as ‘Zara Ruk', an inmate of a lunatic asylum who aspires to be like Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Mohammad Jalal Khan from Pakistan said the opportunity to act is an emotional relief, because back home in Peshawar, plays are banned. Jalal sings folk songs.

Badrinarayan Yadav, 35, from Bihar, India, is thrilled. The worker, who used to act in open-air plays in his village, recently played the role of a farmer in a play called Ham Hain Kamal Ke.

Paranjpe visits accommodations for rehearsals on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday between 8.30pm and 10.30pm.