Can we have this for Indian Metros?

If you have travelled to Europe, you would have surely come across many musicians, some playing their instruments or some singing at various underground/tube or metro stations. The one’s in Paris are especially famous and people actually stand around some, listening to them do their act and clap too. But this entire business of musicians at the Paris metros is run in a very organised manner, not ad hoc, where anyone with a guitar or a flute could come and do their act.

The Paris metro actually has an artistic director, employed by the Paris Metro and his job is to get the right gigs to play. Every year, 300 permits are issued that allow artists to perform almost anywhere they want, any time they want, in the Metro. About 2,000 people apply annually for tryouts held in spring and autumn and the artistic director, with two members of the public has to listen to each one of them patiently before handing out the permit. Of the 300 permits awarded, about half are allocated to veteran badge holders, with the rest going to newcomers.

With five million passengers a day, 303 stations and miles upon miles of hallways, these stations are the best sought out places for performances by artists, after all one never knows, there could be a producer or music director and he could hear one of them and change their lives forever. Now this is something which we do not have at our railway/metro stations. Why can’t this concept be introduced in India where there is talent lurking at almost every corner? We emulate the West for a lot of things, why not those which enhances our lives?