I first heard the term ‘Flashmob’ from my elder
sister who explained the term as follows: “A group of people gather in the road
or at any other public place and suddenly start dancing.” The concept struck me
as weird, very weird in fact. I even thought, “Why don’t these people get run
over by cars while dancing? And why don’t others protest, because surely
enough, dancing in the middle of the road will cause trouble for both vehicles
and pedestrians.” So as one can easily
tell, I had completely misunderstood the concept of Flashmob.
The first time I saw a real Flashmob was in
2k22. It was performed by our seniors and batchmates and I realized that
flashmob is not about “suddenly dancing in the middle of the road ‘’. It is about
weeks of practice and finally a power packed performance consisting of expert
dancers taking one’s breath away by their graceful moves and some non-dancers
forgetting steps, getting nervous and secretly hoping that no one saw them. Also,
I realized that it is not so easily done on the road. One needs to book a
proper location for a Flashmob.
I have always been an out-standing dancer. Meaning-
when I went to learn Odissi in second grade I spent more time standing outside
the classroom after messing up mudras and steps than I did dancing. Naturally I
lost interest after 3 months or so and joined music classes instead where due
to my teacher’s immense patience and perseverance I ended up learning
something. When one of my friends convinced me for dancing in the Flashmob and
I actually said “Yes” I could not believe my own self. Later, I was also
invited to sing with the group in Rock-mob and I agreed to that as well after a
long convincing session by my friends. At times I wonder whether I am
pathologically incapable of saying “No” to friends!
Thus began a month of practice and hard work
when classes, edufest meetings and practice sessions for both Flashmob and
Rockmob were all scheduled at the same time. I remember an incident where I was
busy doing Garba when one of the members of the Edufest committee stood in between
two files of dancers trying to convince me to stop dancing and come for the
Edufest meeting with the Flashmob organizers shouting at both of us in the
background. I also remember always sitting in a corner with my kindle in
between practices and keeping my ears open to hear my friend (one of the
Flashmob organizers) shouting my name angrily at the top of her voice before my
dance segment came up; following which I rushed to stand in the entry line.
There were all kinds of people at the flashmob
practice: the first category is that of the smiling late-comers. These people
were always unabashedly, unregretfully late and took in the organizers’ scoldings with a smiling face. The second category
consisted of the serious people, who were always on time and practiced with
enthusiasm. The third category consisted of people with a moderate level of
attendance but those who gossiped or trailed off into books between segments
and were always confused about where to enter from or stand. In other words,
this group consisted of people like me. The fourth category consisted of the forever
complaining and perennially tired people, who utilized whatever time they got between
dances to complain to their friends about how unfair life has been to them. In
rock-mob this group did not exist though, because there is little chance to
complain when one’s mouth and voice are busy singing. The final category
consists of the cameo appearances. These people showed up whenever they felt
like, practiced as long as they saw fit and then disappeared never to return
again. Some of them did not even show up on the final day.
Many of our older faculty found this idea of
medical students openly dancing to Bollywood songs scandalous to the reputation
of medical field. While they said that it was outrageous that students did not
attend ward postings and classes for inconsequential things like Flashmob, it
was funny and ironical to see that the took out the anger of students not
attending classes on those who actually showed up thus making them question
their decisions. One of the departments even threatened to call our parents if the
attendance continued to be low. Ridiculous as this sounds, this method actually
worked because many people showed up in class the next day!
The final day performance looked awesome, as
was the feedback given by the crowd, thus bringing the colors of success to all
the efforts of the organizers and participants. This event taught us one very
important thing, “Things are always more beautiful, successful and enjoyable,
when done together as a team.”
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