'A day before the concert, my friend and I were loitering on stage admiring its grandness.'
'Suddenly, we realised there were some people on stage.'
'It came as a shock when we realised it was Chris Martin and Sachin Tendulkar.'
'We went numb.'
Hussein F Mullaji shares his experience as a Global Citizen India festival volunteer.
It wasn't just any normal night.
It was the night of the Global Citizen Festival, one of the biggest platforms of 2016, where the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai was like a sky and I could see all the biggest stars sparkling.
The stars I would dream of seeing were unbelievably near me.
Okay, so now I shall begin my short experience at the Global Citizen Festival, where I volunteered. I got it through my college, Amity University, where I am doing my final year MBA. Amity was one of the sponsors of the event.
Attending this event as a volunteer was an amazing feeling. I was not just attending one of India's biggest events, but also working for it.
It made me realise that behind what we seen on our screens is not just the dramatic stage or the performers, but it is also the thousands of people who sweat to make the entire event.
They don't even get to sit peacefully and see the show they worked for.
Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Farhan Akhtar, Sonakshi Sinha, Shraddha Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh and many more rehearsed for days before the concert.
A day before the concert, during the final preparations, my friend and I were loitering on stage admiring its grandness.
Suddenly, we realised there were some people on stage. It came as a shock when we realised that it was Chris Martin and Sachin Tendulkar. We went numb.
Jay Z was like a blast of energy. The audience, including me, couldn't stop bouncing.
I have never rapped so hard in my life. My vocal chords were bursting and my feet were dead at the end.
The showstopper moment was having Chris Martin on stage. Coldplay was a magical experience.
Watching them play live for two hours was an experience I shall cherish all my life. Band frontman Chris Martin reciting a few lines of Chana Mereya was a box of surprises.
Watching him sing Vande Mataram with A R Rahman was such a pleasure.
The intention for the Global Citizen Festival was as beautiful as much as the event itself was. It was organised by the Global Poverty Project and was part of a continued movement to end extreme poverty by 2030.
