A Street Play in Pune

Although the rain gods tried to play spoilsport and put paid to plans of staging this play with a difference, Pooja Chopra and other students of The Tiara Modelling School went ahead with their performance. Staging two simultaneous acts of It’s No Sin to be a Girl (Ladki Hona Paap Nahin), first at the Siddharth Nagar Slums in Kondhwa and then at the J J Garden, Camp in Pune. Pooja Chopra, who was crowned Femina Miss India World 2009, said it was the first time she had ever performed a street play.

“For me, this is the very first time as a performer in a street play. I was more than glad to take up this role since it is a cause which is very close to my heart,” said Pooja Chopra. One of two daughters, who were raised by a single mother, Pooja Chopra says it’s very disheartening that even in this day and age, people consider it unlucky to have a daughter and still yearn for a male child.

“My mother had to walk out of her marital home because I, the second child, was born a girl, whereas, my father wanted a son. But now, after all these years, and with me having been crowned Miss India, all doubts have been laid to rest,” said Pooja Chopra. In a play that exhorted people to treat boys and girls as equals, Pooja Chopra and other students of The Tiara depicted how in the 21 st century, people still differentiate between children on the basis of gender.

“When women can become doctors, engineers, pilots and now, even the President of India, there’s no question of discriminating between boys and girls anymore,” said the lead performer of the play. The performers put forth a strong message against female infanticide and foeticide. Present on the occasion were Ritika Ramtri Kumar, pageant coach and owner, The Tiara and Nera Chopra, mother of Pooja Chopra.