...is the watchword, as Mumbaikars set out to make a difference to earn their tickets to the Global Citizen’s concert, featuring Coldplay.
...is the watchword, as Mumbaikars set out to make a difference to earn their tickets to the Global Citizen’s concert, featuring Coldplay.
Twenty-year-old Nirzary Iswalkar claims to be one of the biggest fans of British rock band Coldplay, and is all geared up to go for their concert in Mumbai next month. “I love Coldplay. I’ve never been to a concert before. I always believed that only Coldplay can get me to attend one,” she gushes. However, for Nirzary and other Coldplay crazy Mumbaikars, getting tickets to the concert is not that simple, as they found out when the gig was announced in September. Part of the Global Citizen Festival, the concert is a means for spreading awareness about sanitation, gender equality and other social issues. Hence, the tickets can only be ‘earned’ by helping out NGOs associated with these causes. Some however were on sale for prices ranging from Rs 25,000 to a whopping Rs 5,00,000.
While the first phase — or Action Journey — of the initiative mostly consisted of signing online petitions or tweeting messages, the activities have now been taken to the next level, with fans actually doing on-ground work. Nizary, who has already been associated with several welfare initiatives such as Project Nanhi Kali and Support Martyrs, earned her brownie points even before the Global Citizen craze began. Despite having won her tickets early on in the race, she decided to invest time in other initiatives. “I have participated in all the action journeys and I’m waiting for the fifth one too. I thought of the millions whose basic needs aren’t fulfilled everyday, and if I could come forward and do my bit to earn my ticket, it’d be satisfying,” she says.
Unlike her, 29-year-old brand consultant Amrita Ray, openly admits that she would not have been a part of any such activities, if not for the Global Citizens initiative. “I’ve always wanted to do some sort of volunteer work, but I never got the impetus to just get out of my bed on the weekends,” she says. Amrita and her fellow mates were a part of the Green Batti Project, where volunteers took note of the quality of infrastructure in schools. “We surveyed the schools around the city. We had to ask a wide variety of questions to the students and teachers, ranging from toilet facilities to the food they get served in the canteen,” she explains. “Even if I’m not one of the lucky 500 from the 1,000 volunteers to win the lottery, I’m glad that I did my bit to help out in some small way,” she adds.
Another first-timer, when it comes to volunteering, is software engineer Rohit Solanki, who had to inspect the conditions in classrooms at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal School in Worli. “I realised that the children were extremely talented, but did not have a proper infrastructure. We were instructed to click pictures of the things that needed repairs and upload them on an app — switch boards, blackboards, lights, fans, benches, classrooms, libraries — every minute aspect had to be taken into consideration,” says Rohit, who believes that he will be more hands-on with NGO work here on out.
Even before the Green Batti initiative started, Mumbaikars were raring to go and were making a difference through online awareness campaigns. Mihir Chheda, for instance, tweeted a poster of himself on Twitter, which he had to create as part of the second action of the journey. “Each action journey supports a cause, and this one supported gender equality. I had to sign several petitions to be a part of the second round, and every signature gave me some points. I also tweeted a picture #printbooksnotthumbs and #thumbsupforliteracy,” he says. Architect Karan Desai, who also took part in only the online campaigns, also emphasised on how the initiative opened up his outlook. “I had to post a few tweets on gender stereotyping, proper nutrition for children, and water scarcities. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t even have tweeted about these topics if it wasn’t for the concert,” he says.
While most fans are slogging it out, informs Nirzary, there are those who don’t mind paying a heavy price for these tickets — literally. “Most of us have worked hard to win the tickets as Global Citizens. But, there are some people who are selling the free tickets (won mostly through points earned by tweets) for vastly inflated prices. If they weren’t going to attend the concert, they shouldn’t have participated. What’s the point of starting this movement then ” she asks.
