Thiruvananthapuram: A daily wages worker at Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, armed with puppets, is now spearheading several government awareness programmes. Sunil Pattimattam has written 15 puppet show scripts, and the 16th one is now touring city schools as part of the Corporation’s waste management programme.
There are many social evils including alcohol abuse, corruption and narcotic substance abuse that he addresses through his scripts. But of them all, he feels the strongest about alcohol abuse. “My cousin was married to an alcoholic. He turned suspicious and eventually murdered her. Their children live like orphans with the father in jail. Alcohol has destroyed many families,” he says.
The script he wrote has toured across the length of Kerala, through tribal villages. Two bikes are all you need to take the show to any place, according to Sunil. “I could just be the first person who has designed a stage using PVC pipes. This, with the puppets can easily be carried to the remotest of places,” he says.
The Excise Department has been using this alcohol abuse script. The script has also travelled outside Kerala. “It was translated into Hindi, and has been performed in Bihar several times,” he says.
He has written radio and street plays, but says that puppet shows capture the interest of the audience easily. He is right. At one of the schools where the Corporation waste management show was performed, children personally went up to him to offer congratulations.
