Street play to raise awareness on COVID-19 in U.T. from today
The Hindu
12-member troupe to perform in 20 villages in Puducherry
A street play portraying the dreaded coronavirus as a stalker-killer that prowls crowded markets and care-free gatherings is all set to hit the rural trail across Puducherry on Thursday. With minimal costumery or props, songs and a few dance steps, the 40-minute presentation is a collaboration of the Health Department’s Covid War Room, Svarnim initiative of Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS) and Pondicherry Science Forum (PSF). It aims at raising awareness among rural communities on the imperative of vaccination to ward off the COVID-19 threat and minimise the consequences of an anticipated third wave of the pandemic. The 12-member troupe, all volunteers with the SAS and comprising a diverse mix of medical professionals, Ph.D holders and a nutritionist, is led by R. Senthil Kumar, and will perform every evening at 20 villages under the Bahour PHC from July 15 to 21.![](/newspic/picid-1269750-20250217064624.jpg)
When fed into Latin, pusilla comes out denoting “very small”. The Baillon’s crake can be missed in the field, when it is at a distance, as the magnification of the human eye is woefully short of what it takes to pick up this tiny creature. The other factor is the Baillon’s crake’s predisposition to present less of itself: it moves about furtively and slides into the reeds at the slightest suspicion of being noticed. But if you are keen on observing the Baillon’s crake or the ruddy breasted crake in the field, in Chennai, this would be the best time to put in efforts towards that end. These birds live amidst reeds, the bulrushes, which are likely to lose their density now as they would shrivel and go brown, leaving wide gaps, thereby reducing the cover for these tiddly birds to stay inscrutable.