In the past few years, Indian railway stations have become a scene for artists to their express their art.
First in 2016 it was reported that 500 volunteers associated with a NGO named Making a Difference (MAD) foundation, revamped Borivali and Khar suburban stations by painting their walls, staircases, overhead bridges and even ticket counters, with colourful imagery:
The Madhubani railway station in Bihar, decided to give a cultural twist to this idea by transform the walls into beautiful piece of artwork to showcase the talent of artists and make the newer generation aware of the Madhubani painting tradition.
The transformation which was carried out as part of a Swachhata mission, saw the participation of 200 Mithila painting artists for about fifteen days, and this was the end product:
The Titwala Railway station near Mumbai has been the latest to adopt this trend and has created its own form of wall art to beautify the premises.
On Monday, twitter user Ketan Shah shared the wall art images and congratulated the General Manager, Divisional Railway Manager of Central Railway and the rest of the team for this feat. These are a few images:
As seen above, these images are a mix of contemporary and tradition, with one also seeking to send out a message about the harmful effects of deforestation.
These images were later also shared by the official account of Central Railway:
Titwala station beautified with paintings on wall, station premises. #SwachhRailSwachhBharatpic.twitter.com/q91246Ssxs
— Central Railway (@Central_Railway) December 25, 2017
Various twitter users like the transformation of the railway station and appreciated the move:
Today I saw wall painting in Titwala nice work
— Anand (@Andykpal) December 25, 2017
Great initiative. Railway ministry should give impetus to the beautification drive of every major stations from Jammu to Kanyakumari & Jodhpur to Dibrugarh along with cleanliness drive. Jai Hind #SwachhRailSwachhBharat
— Atul Sharma (@AtulSharma1411) December 25, 2017
It is heartening to note that Indian railway stations are embracing vibrancy and art, which might make railway travel a cheerful affair for the commuters. One also hopes that other railway stations too start taking this initiate and mainstream such wall art.
