Weekends are usually quite busy at malls and markets, with shoppers and residents out for shopping or evening plans. But on Saturday, over a hundred visitors at the
Galleria Market stopped in their tracks for a good 15 minutes when a group of Gurgaon students performed a
flash mob and
nukkad natak. The event named Bekhabar, organised by a student-led NGO called Zikr and ALM Academy, saw 45 teenagers from Gurgaon – most of whom have just finished school – perform a nukkad natak and flash mob to raise awareness about mental health.
The students started with a flash mob in the central atrium of the market and pretty soon, a crowd gathered to watch. “The flash mob served as the right tool to get people’s attention, after which we staged the nukkad natak and were able to put our point across,” said Sanya Aggarwal, co-founder of Zikr. The play, conceived and directed by the students, showed the importance of identifying mental illness as a real health issue by talking about issues such as body-shaming, depression, and exam pressure. Saloni Pahuja, co-founder of Zikr, said, “We wanted to raise awareness about mental health through this. These are important issues that get trivialised and this was one way to give them exposure.”
BHANGRA-SHANGRA!
The students first performed a flash mob to gain people’s attention, and then staged a nukkad natak to raise awarness about mental health
