A flash mob dance in Mumbai

YouTube link. 

My post about the flash mob dance in flash mob dance in Beirut generated a number of comments, one of which was obviously promotional in nature, coming from a first-time commenter titled "Mumbai Events" and linked to a website promoting Bombay tourism.  Normally I ignore such material, but this time I watched and found it to be enjoyable, if for no other reason than to see an unfamiliar dance style.  During my years in academia, many of my friends, colleagues, and best students came from the Indian subcontinent, so this also brought back a variety of very pleasant memories.

The music playing on the public address system is “Rang De Basanti”.  The location is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) of the Mumbai railway system. The occasion was an anniversary of the 2008 terrorist attack.

Credit:
The mob dance was the idea of Shonan Kothari, a researcher for Harvard Business School. Work on the dance started in October, with a group of 325 volunteers. A friend of Shonan, Bhaumik Shah, choreographed the dance. Shonan hired Running Cow Films to make an official video of the event. The group of volunteers would practice at Priyadarshani Park.

One of the toughest parts was to get permission from the Indian Railway officials to allow the flash mob dance at CST. Shonan’s persistance paid off when the railway authorities gave permission on the condition that the event would not be used for publicity or for commercial purpose. Congratulations to the Railway authorities for letting this go ahead.