Theatre artists in Lucknow pay homage to the Pulwama martyrs

On Sunday evening, the members of the Theatre Artist Association of Uttar Pradesh gathered at the Rai

Umanath Bali

auditorium to pay their tributes to the martyred CRPF soldiers who lost their lives in the terrorist attack on their convoy in Pulwama, J&k. With heavy hearts, the people present there lit candles and offered flowers to the photographs of the soldiers. Everyone present then gathered and maintained a 2-minute silence to pay their respects to the soldiers. "We all know that today, we are disheartened and the whole nation is in grief, anger and aggression. We should not keep a 2-minute silence just for the sake of it, instead we should feel connected to it, and it should reflect in our emotions," said theatre veteran artist Urmil Kumar Thapliyal. "Ask those who have who lost their son, brother, father or husband, how they are feeling. They are going to spend their lives in grief. I know we can’t wipe their tears but we can at least stand by them and we should at this hour, when the whole country is in grief and sorrow," added Thapliyal. He then went on to recite an emotional poem that he’d written for the soldiers.

Theatre artists paid homage to the Pulwama martyrs (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)
Theatre veteran Dr Anil Rastogi along with others including Dharam Shree Singh, Tanya Suri, Mukesh Verma, Rakesh Pandey, Dicky Singh, Gopal Sinha and SC Verma were present among many personalities and prayed for the recovery of injured soldiers.

(L) Mukesh Verma (R) Dr Anil Rastogi (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)
Few among others came up and recited their poems as well, one among them said, "We should contribute financially to the families of the soldiers by means of internet, it doesn’t matter whether we can afford to donate 1 rupee or 100 rupees, what matters is we should donate whatever we can for our brave soldiers."

(L) Vinod Mishra (R) Dharam Shree Singh (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)
The people present there discussed how they can help the families of the soldiers who lost their lives and sang the song 'Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon' also shouted slogans of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Veer Jawan Amar Rahein'!
— Saad Abbasi

Urmil Kumar Thapliyal reciting a poem he had written for the soldiers (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

(L) Rakesh Pandey (C) Dicky Singh (R) Tanya Suri (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

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