People traveling in Indian Railways always hear announcements at the station. These announcements are made for different people and for different reasons. Sometimes the station master makes an announcement to call an employee or to assign some work. Sometimes announcements are made for lost people and to give other types of information. However, it is most commonly used to give information related to the train to the passengers.
It is through announcements that people get to know when their train will arrive and on which platform. If the train is late, when will it reach the station and if a train is cancelled, what are the options available to passengers. During announcements at the station, people often hear a woman’s voice, but this voice is actually of a 24-year-old man named Shravan Adode.
Who is Shravan?
“Yatrigan kripa atyaan de” You all must be familiar with this voice, which is very sweet and clear. However, this voice belongs to Shravan Adode, who works as a private sector employee with the Indian Railways. Shravan’s journey started with a coincidence. One day at Parli station in Maharashtra, there was a technical glitch due to a power shortage. This caused the automatic announcement system to malfunction. Due to this, the responsibility of announcement was given to Shravan. Shravan started making announcements by imitating the female voice, which was traditionally used for announcements.
Shravan imitated the woman’s voice brilliantly. His voice completely matched the voice recorded by the old female announcer. After this incident, Shravan’s work changed. Now he makes announcements in a woman’s voice for the railways. Shravan’s voice now resonates at railway stations across the country. Parts of his recordings are digitally mixed for different announcements. The senior announcer of the Central Railway Headquarters in Mumbai has praised his voice.
Shravan is also an actor
Apart from doing railway announcement work, Shravan is also a voice artist, duet singer and actor in films and serials. A graduate from Vaidyanath College and a student of BHEL Secondary School, Shravan now lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Despite achieving this recognition, Shravan’s journey was full of challenges. During his college days, his voice was a subject of jokes, with peers mocking him and calling him different names. Shravan ignored the negativity and focused on his work. Today, his voice guides millions of travellers across India.