Tram Tales, was an effort by Aditya Sengupta and Kheya Chattopadhay, to help us remember the much forgotten and terribly neglected trams of our city.

It was a 2 day exhibition, where we had drama teams come and perform, film makers showing their short films based on trams, various installations, photographs upholding the beauty of trams and renowned musicians and bands performing at the Gariahat Tram Depot.

The aim was to use performing arts as a medium to reimburse the glory of trams, and all of this happened in trams.

The Drama Trams had thespians performing inside the trams, sitting in close proximity to the audience and interacting with them as well. Young theatre groups which are making a name for themselves in Kolkata were invited, like STB Hanuman Productions, Mad About Drama(M.A.D), DC and a few more. A large crowd was seen gathering in and outside the Drama Tram, with a lot of smiles and claps and hoots being seen and heard.

                                                          

                                                                      Drama Tram

                                        

                                                      Performers interacting with the audience

The photographs were displayed on objects available at the depot with the tram serving as the backdrop.

                              

The dimly lit Filmy Tram had some comfy cushions and bean bags for the audience if they didn’t like the tram seats, while watching the short films. There were a total of 6 short films to watch and one of them was a spooky one directed by Aditya Sengupta himself. The documentary made by VIEWfinder grabbed quite a few eyeballs. Another draw of the Filmy Tram was a number of sketches of famous directors done by Budhaditya Chowdhury, which were pasted on the tram sides. People were actually awestruck at the sketches made.

                                        

                                                        Inside the Filmy Tram

The Music Tram obviously had a large audience. Who wouldn’t want to listen to the amazing bands that came to play, especially when Ganesh Talkies, Neel Sarkar Project, Adil & Paloma and The Underground Authority were the major draws? The stage was set in front of 3 well decorated trams, serving as the background. People were head banging, singing along and dancing with some crazy mean moves, Good Lord!!

                                        

There was a Graphiti Tram as well, where Graphiti painters from the city came to turn the tram into their canvas and turn it into a beauty.

The Adda Tram was a spot for people to catch up with their mates. Mrs.Magpie and some street food vendors had their delicacies flying off the shelves!! The Adda Tram was beautifully lit with small yellow bulbs and had a vibrant feel. It was completely thronged by people.

                                          

Tram Tales turned out to be a tremendously successful exhibition with a footfall of over 2000 people in just 2 days. We had people pouring in from left right and centre!! Our friends at the ticket counter sure had a tough time holding on to their smiles while stamping the wrists of our guests and giving out tickets in such large numbers. The tickets for the exhibition were funnily designed the way original tram tickets look like.

                                                  

                                                             Tickets for the exhibition

There were some tram trivia stuck on the trams as well. Did you know that trams were initially horse driven ?

                                                        Tram Trivia pasted on the body of the trams

Media from all over the world covered us. Really!! Tram Tales was featured in Rolling Stones (I’m pretty sure that Rolling Stones doesn’t need to be introduced but just in case you hopped in from some other planet, Rolling Stones is the most famous American Magazine that focuses on music, movies, TV and popular culture)!! Even Qatar knows about it because it got featured in The Peninsula Qatar, a popular daily out there, also China had us in their news!!

And you must be thinking that the entire exhibition was very youth-centric, which is true to an extent but not totally because we had people above the age of 65 turn up as well. We are truly thankful to them for coming over and enjoying the show. When we went about asking them how they felt they surprised us with their answers. After all who cares about age, they were all young at heart.

Even the weather was on our side. It didn’t rain till the show got over for the day. Yes, there were some showers at night and it required us to do some things all over again the next day, but we didn’t mind really. If you had got to see the throngs of people just going berserk, you too would have gone there and worked hard to put up the platform for people to perform and enjoy.

To sum it all up it was an incredibly lovely event, it was a joy to work for it and we are thankful to everybody who supported us in this venture.