THE ART OF BEING POPULAR

    The following article was published in the news paper 'Hindustan Times' on 19 Dec 2017. That time I was working as Simulator Instructor in Gurugram (also known as Gurgaon) after taking PR (Premature Retirement) from the Indian Air Force in Aug 2016. 

THE ART OF BEING POPULAR

  I could never master the craft of mustering multiple likes and comments on social sites and secretly envied those who would elicit hundreds of clicks on the drop of their post. The few likes which I scored were from immediate family members who, I was pretty sure, did that out of sheer sympathy. Never to give up, I did some self styled research and went on a maddening spree to add as many friends as possible and liking any post which showed up on the screen. ‘Like begets like’ and ‘more the friends more the likes’ was the logic behind this. This phase lasted for about four months during which I tripled my friend list and scored innumerable clicks on the like button. I resisted from posting anything during this period, waiting for the right moment which came in the form of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon which I completed with my wife, followed by a visit to Bangalore to look up my daughter. The photos of both events along with a crisp write up were floated on the social site.

I was sure of surge in my popularity but the tsunami of likes and comments on my two posts went beyond my wildest dream. The two photos elicited a whopping 100 likes overnight and touched 200 by third day. Basking in the new found popularity I chance encountered an old colleague from NDA (National Defence Academy) days. The discussion predictably veered to the training days at the Military Academy and homed on to our civilian instructors who found it pretty difficult to come to terms with the Academy culture. One of a very popular instructor shared his dilemma through a prize winning entry in the Reader’s Digest (circa 1970s) which read something like- “Whenever I go around very few cadets salute me but when I am with my wife the salutes multiply and the other day I was with my teenage daughter and found the whole academy, including the first termers who are not yet authorised to salute, saluting me”. We laughed aloud as we have always been doing recollecting anecdotes of that era. The laughter, however soon gave way to that strange and creepy feeling where you realise that the joke on which you are laughing could in fact be on you. Introspecting I recollected, rather uncomfortably, that of the two posts one had my wife with me and the other was with my daughter.

But all my marathon efforts of befriending and liking based on the principles of psychology of human behaviour must have had some effect. I was ready for the litmus test and boldly gambled posting two complimentary photos of the two events sans my wife and daughter. Three days wait proved that I indeed have become popular as the posts instead of the usual 6-7 likes had 14 and 18 likes. I took the set back in my stride and looked at the positive aspect of finally having discovered the art of being popular.


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