The 200-strong dancing flashmob that took commuters at Mumbai’s CST by surprise on Sunday evening when it broke out in a choreographed dance to the tune of Rang de Basanti’s  title track, was organised by Shonan Kothari, a young Palanpuri who works with a corporate in the city.About 50 other community members participated in the event which was Mumbai's first large-scale citizen flashmob. Shonan is the daughter of Vibha and Mehul B. Kothari.

A flashmob, by definition, is when a large group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, perform a seemingly pointless act for a brief period, then disperse as though nothing had happened. The first ever organised flashmob was in New York City in 2003, and they have been common in the West ever since. While Mumbai has seen a few flashmobs in the last few months, most of them have been to promote different brands.
   
“I always wanted to be part of a flashmob, having watched several viral videos of western ones on YouTube,” says Shonan Kothari, 23, organiser of the flashmob. “I decided to organise one myself and spread the word through friends and family – and got a very enthusiastic response. I made it very clear to everyone that this flashmob would have no commercial interest or didactic purpose, but would literally just be for the sheer joy of dance, purely for entertainment. I guess having no agenda but fun appealed to people.”

The group was divided into four batches of approximately 50 each, and has been practicing for the last two weeks at a yoga studio, to achieve coordination. Participants ranged from ages 4 to 60. “We practiced hard, and this was the craziest four minutes of my life!” says Priya Srivastav, 23, who had to be the first to break into dance at the station, after which the others followed. “It was strange for me to be jumping around alone in the beginning, but it was so much fun, I don't mind going back and doing it all over again.”

“I heard about the flashmob through my daughter, and it sounded like a great concept, something that hasn't been done in India,” says Sangeen Mehta, 48, homemaker. “I'm so happy that I decided to participate. It was thrilling to go out there and just break free in a public space, entertain people for a few minutes. My husband and I both took part with our kids, and we also met so many new, interesting people through the practices.”

Speaking to a blogger with New York Times, Shonan said,“One of the top items on my travel to-do list, which I never got around to in Europe, was to be a part of a flash mob.” The former researcher for Harvard Business School, said, “Since India didn’t have anything of the sort, I figured I’d do it myself.”

While flash mobs aren’t new to the city – there have been performances at the airport and Phoenix Mills – this is the first to be performed at a railway station. “We wanted to attract people from all walks of life and not just from a particular strata of society. CST, being one of the busiest stations in the city, witnesses a variety of people and seemed like the perfect stage,” Shonan told the Times of India.

(Based mainly on article by Pankti Mehta)

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