Mumbai

22 March 2017 00:40 IST

Perform a flash mob for commuters to drive home the message

Over the past few years, several regions across India have been affected by droughts. The exact regions may vary — Maharashtra, for instance, had drought last year, while Tamil Nadu had intense rainfall. This year, Tamil Nadu has had no rains and is facing a long summer with precious little water.

Drought, then, is a constant and the message, as always, should be that water must not be taken for granted. On the occasion of World Water Day on Tuesday, the bottled water company Bisleri tied up with the iconic Dabbawalas of Mumbai to spread this message. And it was all done through a highly entertaining ‘flashmob’ executed by the Dabbawalas outside Churchgate station.

As hundreds of passing commuters stopped to watch, a group of about 50 Dabbawalas, with their trademark white caps and draped with green scarves with the Bisleri logo, put up a three-minute dance performance with the aid of dhols, trumpets, and background music blaring on speakers. As the group danced energetically, another group of four encircled them with placards that had the message: ‘save water, it will save you’. The whole skit ended with the Dabbawalas putting up to two giant human pyramids, something they said they had been practising for weeks. “This is part of the many social activities that the Dabbawalas have undertaken recently. Before the BMC elections, we started a campaign to get people to vote,” one of them said.

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This is not the first initiative in which the Dabbawalas have collaborated with Bisleri. Recently, along with hundreds of lunch boxes that were delivered across the city, the Dabbawalas included Bisleri bottles containing eco-friendly dry colours, and a message to encourage people to play a water-less Holi.

Parag Bengali, director of Bisleri International Private Limited, who oversaw the event at Churchgate, said, “Everyone should understand the importance of water, and as a responsible citizen, make a conscious effort to save it in their everyday life.” The tie up with the Dabbawalas, he explained, was the first part of a larger campaign that the company would be conducting on saving water, across the country. The event also drew attention to Bisleri’s water conservation project, Nayi Ummeed, which aims to conserve rain water by building and restoring check dams.