No monkey business

Even as the Internet shares jokes about Harambe, the dead gorilla, Mumbai is set to see a candlelight vigil, to mark the animal’s fifth death anniversary.

After cities like New York, London, Leeds, Ontario and even New Delhi, Mumbai is all set to host a candlelight vigil for slain Cincinnati Zoo gorilla, Harambe, on Friday.

Now, one may wonder what a gorilla’s death in the US five months ago has to do with youngsters conducting a vigil in India. The answer is, a lot.

The 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla had to be shot to ensure the safety of a toddler that had fallen into his enclosure, on May 18. Besides animal rights activists creating a furore over the gorilla’s demise, for inexplicable reasons, Harambe’s death caught the eye of the world, becoming a meme in the process. Over the past few months, jokes about Harambe being ‘just a gorilla’, or fancied wishes of his rebirth have done the rounds of the Internet.

It is while browsing through one such meme that 18-year-old Shashwat Shukla first learned about Harambe. “A few of my friends started sharing quotes about Harambe very regularly. A friend of mine studying in California would share these posts religiously and I enjoyed them. I’ve always been into memes, but Harambe was very funny and creative. One of my favourite memes about him was a song about the gorilla, modified to fit Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (Mama, I killed a man),” explains the Computer Science student.

So when Shashwat learned about a candlelight vigil in New Delhi for Harambe, he decided to get on board by hosting one in Mumbai too. “The vigil had been organised in Delhi by an acquaintance, and I wondered why this was not happening in Mumbai,” he explains. “I’m in a society in college and I discussed this with my friends. When they didn’t take an initiative, I made the event page and it got a lot of attention.”

However, the cause has become a little more than just a meme or a joke for the youngster. “A penguin just died in Mumbai’s zoo and I use that as a reason to push my cause when I talk to the police,” he says. “The fact is that animals aren’t being taken care of well in the zoos, and that is a problem. It wasn’t humanitarian to shoot the gorilla straight off; they could have tranquillised him instead. I’m trying to get an animal rights activist on board too; it’s not just a joke to me. You can’t just shoot animals.”

Hussain Shaikh, a Mumbai resident, who plans to attend the vigil, first got intrigued thanks to Harambe being a much-loved meme. “I live and breathe memes,” he elucidates. “Harambe turns out to be one of my favourite memes. So when I got this event invite from my friend I thought, why not.” Later, when Hussain realised that the vigil proposes to talk about animal welfare too, he felt more in tune in with the walk. “With one of the penguins having died in Mumbai recently, I think the timing is absolutely perfect,” he smiles.

Harsh Singh, an IT professional, marked his presence on the event’s Facebook page, but was surprised to learn it wasn’t a gag. “I thought it was a troll event, and had no clue this was for real. I was just going to join in for the joke,” he says.

Shashwat sighs as he realises that the effect the meme has had could well overshadow the vigil. “To be honest, a lot of people coming for the vigil will be coming there just for the meme. But that’s okay, it happens. Sometimes we need an event to be seen on a global stage,” he shrugs.

The last hurdle the hosts face now is to get requisite permissions for the vigil in place. “The Marine Drive police station has turned us down, which is quite interesting considering they gave permission for Pokewalks (Pokemon-catching walks). We have an approval in word from Juhu police station and are also scouting Worli Seaface as a location,” he says.

For more details about the walk, follow the Harambe Candle Light Vigil event page on Facebook.