“Sir, how is my mother? I really want to see my daughter’s face. Please believe me, I will never take drugs again in my life.” A prisoner burst into tears while clutching the jailer’s feet. He happens to be an undertrial prisoner jailed for drug trafficking. Inside the prison, this felt like a completely different realization, reminiscent of Muktodhara (a free flow of emotions/liberation). On World Anti-Drug Day, the ‘Birbhum Sanskriti Bahini’ staged a play in front of the prison inmates.

The inmates sat in front and watched the play. They understood how a family drifts away, a sister is dishonored, and a father dies due to the consequences of addiction. Right after that, the struggle begins with the vow, “There is still a way to return.” Ultimately, the boy trapped in addiction spreads his wings into a free society, towards a healthy life. The performers of the cultural troupe were ecstatic to perform for the very first time in front of prison inmates. Similarly, watching the play triggered an awakening within the prisoners. Jail officials said, “This is exactly why we decided to stage the play ‘Nesha’ (Addiction) inside the prison.”

Playwright and director Ujjwal Mukhopadhyay said, “In this 25-minute play ‘Nesha’, I have tried to portray the life story of a young man. A youth gets addicted to drugs falling into bad company. Later, to afford his addiction, he gets habituated to selling his mother’s jewelry and even human trafficking. One day, he sees that the traffickers have handed over his own sister to him. From his sister, he learns that his father is on his deathbed at home. There are no means for treatment even after spending his mother’s last resources. When he returns home with his sister, the wayward boy sees the face of his deceased father. Touching his father’s body, he takes an oath of reformation.”

The actors of the play, Kaushik Roy and Jahar Das, shared, “We have performed in many places. But performing inside a correctional home gave us goosebumps. Seeing Rupa Sutar in the mother’s role and Anwesha Ghosh in the sister’s role, it didn’t feel like they were acting. That is why it left a deep impression on the inmates’ minds. It truly reminds them of the mothers, sisters, and wives they left behind at home.”

According to Anwesha, “Before the play, we spoke with the female inmates in the women’s ward. We realized how many tales of sorrow are written within these closed four walls. Perhaps it is because of that pain that the struggles of our characters felt like our own.”

However, in the words of the jail officials, “By showing this play, we wanted to reform the undertrial prisoners of the jail. It has made an impact on the minds of the inmates to some extent. That is why at the end of the play, some wept uncontrollably. Many sat with gloomy faces. We felt that through the play, a true ‘education for prisoners’ was achieved.”