Flash Mob “Welcome to India” : Mumbai CST Official Video

Flash mob is a group of people who from within the crowd at a public place start dancing altogether all of a sudden and perform their act before dispersing into the crowd once again. Since May 2003 in Manhattan, numerous flash mobs have been seen all across the world specially in the United States and Europe, but the phenomenon has not really caught the fancy of the Indians. But on November 27, 2011 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) , the commuters were taken by surprise when they witnessed a flash mob. This flash mob organized by Shonan Kothari, a researcher for Harvard Business School, had over 200 people who were aged between 4 and 60, performing a flash mob on the title track of Bollywood film Rang de Basanti, commemorating the third anniversary of 26/11. It was a tribute to the people who lost their lives o 26/11 three years ago.

You Tube

You Tube

Although the video seems to be quiet spontaneous, the act was practiced for two weeks in a Malabar Hill park in batches by Shonan kothari. It took her a month to plan the act, get the security clearance, and finally organize the camera placements. Although the flash mob came to notice after the viral circulation of the videos on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, Shonan didn’t took the idea to social networking sites fearing too many people might show up for the flash mob. She had 325 volunteers within the two days of her circulating the mail.



While the trains were stopped for 10 minutes to mark this observance, the railway station ‘s announcement system was used to play the track and immediately after the track ended, there were announcements as usual and the mob dispersed quickly quite spontaneously in the crowd as it happens in the flash mobs.