“Yatrigan Krupya Dhyan Den”, it’s a man behind these radio announcements otherwise generally performed and presumed to be that of a lady!
Shravan Adode is the voice behind the announcements at the Parli Vijaynath Railway Station in Maharashtra.
While the general announcements are made through an automated electronic voice of a female, Adode comes in handy when there’s a power failure at the station. He gives away all the vital information impersonating the automatic female voice. And he has been doing this for years now.
“One day it happened so that there was load shedding and the system hanged. So, there came a need to make the announcements at the station manually. There were men doing the job and that’s when I stepped in and experimented with my voice making it sound like that of a woman. And guess what they couldn’t even recognize that it was a man, that is, me,” said Shravan Adode, who works in the crew management system of the Indian Railways and is posted at the Parli station.
Posted by Shravan Adode on Saturday, July 17, 2021
He makes the announcements out of his own will for his fondness for the Railways.
Also, read: [My Story] How Losing My Own Identity In The Indian Railways Restored My Faith In Humanity
“I was fascinated by the railway announcements for a long time. Whenever I used to travel by train and it stopped at some station, I would marvel at the announcements which I thought were made by a lady. It was actually the case previously when they were no automated voice. So, when I reached my destination and got some alone time, I would try and practice these announcements. I have picked up the styles and accents of the announcements made in different parts of the country in the due course of time,” shared Adode.
Yet his unique talent is not appreciated by all. He was often made fun of for his choice.
“When I was in college, there were few students who used to humiliate me for my voice experiments. They used to call me names and taunt me saying that I was a transgender. Even in society, I used to sense irks amongst people. I could get what they were talking about me. But I used to just ignore it. There’s no solution to these,” narrated Shravan.
Adode is multi-talented. He also has a very good command of music and can sing in both male and female voices which he plans to take forward. He also wants to use it in dubbing, voice-over, entering the film industry.
We wish Shravan to achieve every feat that he wills.