Influential influencers

The  alleged assault of a social media influencer by a Zomato delivery boy is hogging headlines in Indian social media. While the delivery guy Kamaraj's version is more believable and the woman seems to have tried a publicity stunt to gain views and sympathy, it will take time to prove his innocence especially as there was no CCTV camera in place in her building. Moreover, it is a case of man versus hapless woman, the rich versus the poor not to mention fair and entitled Aryan versus  dark and barbarian Dravidian.

The case brings to mind an experience while doing a report on teen mental health. A young girl, in my son's age group, had fallen off her 10th floor flat a few months before her Board exams. The mother was a popular vlogger, so this reporter contacted her for her comments on the mishap. She said it was not what the media had projected and she couldn't shut the mouths of press people. She tried to pass it off as an accident, but immediately took to her channel to complain to her faithful fans about this heartless person who had spoiled her day by asking about the death of her only child. Some 250 comments followed comforting her and abusing the reporter.

As luck would have it,  a couple of months later the reporter met an Indian official who had asisted in the case. The person divulged the girl was caught in the company of her boyfriend when the parents dropped home a visiting relative early and unexpectedly after shopping. The ensuing showdown led to the girl taking the extreme step. Thankfully, there was no media scrutiny like we saw in actor Sushant Singh Rajput case. The polce are parents and human too, and the family was saved further embarrassment.

Around the same time, the mother took to a popular vernacular women's magazine to clear the mystery around the departed soul. She tried to suggest the girl could've applied cream on her legs and was trying to take a selfie standing on the window when she slipped and fell (no one but a daring acrobat would stand on a skyscraper's grill-less window taking selfie!). The novel and sentimental style adopted by the article's writer - magazines and subeditors get innovative in story presentation - won the hearts of many. The parent not only got sympathy but also new subscribers to her channel, I surmise.

Still not at peace, the parents migrated to their hometown hoping it will erase painful memories and queries. I hope they find peace. 

To me, the death of each child in my children's age group is very painful. Each time I cross the road in front of our house, I am reminded of a batchmate of Ash, an only son, who was fatally hit by a speeding car while trying to retrieve his ball that had rolled off to the main road from the corniche lawns. 

In taking excessive interest in such deaths, there is also the desire not to repeat the parenting errors they may have committed unwittingly. Parenting is a tough game especially when handling hormonal teens. Parents do not know what their kids have up their sleeve - like the girl who hid on the villa's roof because her phone was taken away owing to poor scores in exams; after a worrying day for all when we suspected that she was kidnapped during her morning walk, she was found by the efficient city police.

However, the Bangalore fiasco tells us once again that people (read: influencers who capture on camera for their viewers every silly aspect of their lives including the chakka and manga that have arrived from the native place) living in glass houses (online) should not throw stones. Because the truth may catch up with them someday.

#Youtubers