Keep your shirt on

Learn more, More will Rise, Rise will Shine - Dr V V Rao

What are they good at? What are their talents? What are their souls’ urges? What are they like when they are at their best? When we help people find good in others, people will enjoy being led, they will be more receptive, enthusiastic to our opinions and guidance.

Learning: Hitler had a powerful and aggressive ally, Japan. He knew that Japan was considering attacking either the North (they had a non declared border war with Russia then in the Far East), or the South (against South East Asia and the US). He did not bother to try to coordinate his invasion of Russia with Japan or even inform them. If he did, Japan would stay at war with Russia for 8 more months and that alone would be enough to keep the large Russian forces in the Far East until the German army advanced all the way to Moscow by December 1941. Instead, the uninformed Japan signed a non-aggression pact with Russia just two month before Hitler invaded them, and as a result, when the exhausted and frozen German invaders reached Moscow and thought that Russia had no further reserves, they were massively attacked by fresh Russian units who had been transferred from the Japanese border in the Far East.

There are moments in our life when we are forced to work with people who have irritated every fiber of our very being. We did not like them because they exploited people; they were arrogant, abusive, loud and combative. And yet, we knew they were the ones who had some amazing talents and therefore, it was a privilege that we got the chance to work with that person and learn something which we did not know earlier. When that person moves away, we cease to miss that person, rather miss their unique skills and talents.

A prominent periodical wrote about the ‘amazing’ career of a successful business woman. What made her success all the more remarkable was the fact that she had had no previous business experience. So she had been asked to outline the principles upon which she had built her business. When she submitted the article, the publisher exclaimed, ‘Astounding, these ideas are not new but their application is unique’. Would you mind telling me where you got them? She then smiled and said, from my colleagues who are the subject matter experts of their own field.

There are many avenues, ideas, talents, skills and competencies in each person you come across in your life. It is only you who can and has to recognize them with an open mind and spirit.

Walk to the end of the earth

Take a deep, relaxed deep breath in; have a more relaxed breath out. Think about an internal question to yourself “WHO AM I?” Let your mind, body and heart are trying to answer this question. Let your mind be curious, not fearful, not greedy, not bothered, not looking for effectiveness or for an artistic thing and ask one more time “Who am I!” with calmness around you, silence around you, leaving your cell phone, IPAD, I-note and all gadgets far from you. Ask again one more time incase if you find an answer script it down whatever comes to your thought and array of thoughts. Keep continue the questioning deeper and deeper till you satisfy your gut and feel yourself about “Who are you”, “What is your role” you wanted to play in your own life, “What is the purpose” you want to relate your-self a bigger cause of your existence. When you really Google yourself and you discovered your-self from all those millions of thoughts. 

Yes, Yes You must and should live for that gigantic chief cause. Once you start doing it you get happiness, peace, satisfaction, meaning to your life and joy. Then it makes you powerful, passionate and hungry to make your cause to a reality.

On January 15, 2009, Captain C B Sullenberger made an emergency landing of his fifty-ton passenger aircraft, softly gliding in onto the Hudson River in New York City, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. In his case the first clue that he became a hero in his teens, when most of his friends were getting their driver’s licenses, he got his pilot license. He found himself as a pilot. Identify yourself and you will understand your natural motivation the thing for which you would walk to the end of the earth.

One of the top five regrets of the dying is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

Hang out with honey bees

Self motivated with clear direction

Owen Wilson public persona is that of a laid-back, fun-loving dude, but the world saw a darker side of the actor in 2007 when reports surfaced that he had attempted suicide at his California home. Some friends were shocked, but others said that Wilson, who was 38 at the time, had "battled his share of demons, which have included drug addiction," reported People. Wilson "bounced back" from his suicide attempt, People reported eleven weeks later, by spending time with family and close friends.

Who build you up, who really care about your confidence and self respect are valuable assets that need to be nurtured constantly. Therefore besides working towards constantly upholding your own self respect and confidence, what additionally assists is the confidence, respect given by those around you in soliciting your thoughts, your values and ideas. So, choose wisely and hang out with sincere people who build you up and who really care about you. If you actually observe carefully, you will find that birds of a type always fly together in formations in the sky and you can see them together on the trees. You never see a crow flying with pigeons.

Ashley Judd, Today she has a loving husband, a successful acting career, and a passion for humanitarian work, but life was not always so picture-perfect for Judd. In her 2011 memoir, All That Is Bitter & Sweet she revealed that she considered suicide as a sixth-grader, and in 2006 underwent 42 days in a rehab clinic for depression. "I would have died without it," she told People in April 2011. Reconciling with estranged family members and helping those less fortunate through charity work has helped Judd regain perspective and make peace with her past. 

Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination. Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables. Bees collect 66 lbs of pollen per year, per hive. Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilization and plant embryo formation. The Honeybee uses pollen as a food. Honeybees represent a highly organized society, with various bees having very specific roles during their lifetime.  

Prince Diana received counseling to prepare herself for life with the royal family, according to the Daily Mail. The counseling was likely meant to be preventive: William's mother said Diana, after all, had experienced loneliness and depression in her role as a prince's wife.

Several Apollo astronauts who geared up their whole lives for the eventual mission to land on the moon: When they finally did it they exhilarated, but after returning to earth, some of them developed a level of emotional depression further than what most people could imagine. As soon as you find yourself about to accomplish a goal, you need to make sure that you blueprint the next high level of goal immediately to avoid vacuum in our minds. As someone said ' We spend far too much time preparing the path for our youth, and far too little time preparing our youth for the path' In our journey we need to set our newer goals again and again year on year some are spontaneous to test our agility, some are long term to test our endurance, some are learning focused to test our knowledge and some are lifelong to validate our Wisdom in our lives.

Owen Wilson public persona is that of a laid-back, fun-loving dude, but the world saw a darker side of the actor in 2007 when reports surfaced that he had attempted suicide at his California home. Some friends were shocked, but others said that Wilson, who was 38 at the time, had "battled his share of demons, which have included drug addiction," reported People. Wilson "bounced back" from his suicide attempt, People reported eleven weeks later, by spending time with family and close friends.

When model and actress Porizkova was voted off ABC's Dancing with the Stars in 2007, her feelings of rejection led to anxiety attacks. Porizkova wrote in a 2011 Huffington Post editorial, but also her personality. She eventually stopped the medication, fighting withdrawal symptoms with exercise and willpower.

Honey bees reset their goals everyday till they live. Hang out with people who are positive, brave of winning instinct and encouragers to ‘speak our mind’ same as ‘Birds of a feather flock together’. 

Must hope disappear? Is defeat final? No?

Men of good judgement seldom rely wholly on their own

A farmer had an old age dog. One day his old dog fell into a dry well. At first, the farmer was at a loss as to what to do. I suppose the dog also was at a loss. Then the farmer said to himself, ‘It is an old dog. Why do I not put an end to its misery? He could either starve to death, or I can bury the dog and cover up the well at the same time?’ so the farmer started shoveling the dirt into the well. At first, the dog barked furiously, and the farmer felt sad but has had no real choice there was absolute silence. Guessing that the dog was now under the dirt, the farmer looked down. The dog was wagging his tail and looking up at the farmer. He realized that each time he pushed the dirt into the well the dog would just shake it off and get on top of the pile. The dog eventually ‘rode’ the pile of new dirt to the top.

What is that single, strategically important and purposeful objective and dream of your life that you could not initiate at all?

And

What do you want to do in the next phase of your life? That would strategically change and transform your life to a new purposeful dimension and level?

Even if there is an iota of agreement between what your gut feelings and inner self, then it’s your wake-up call for action. 

"You are the only one who can take action that find meaning when you Google it and work on that."

First of all one has to define objective and think about Is the objective acceptable to you? Is the objective adaptable to unforeseen changes in the environment? Does the objective clearly see the futuristic state what will be achieved and when it will be achieved? Is the objective achievable? Can it be reached? Is the Objective’s target high enough to challenge, yet realistic and achievable? Does the objective fit with your purpose and your existence? Have you really understood what you are trying to accomplish and achieve by setting the specific long-term objective?

A more real time personality: Karl Ove Knausgaard enthralls literary world with the story of his life. A handsome, brooding Norwegian author has held much of the literary establishment I thrall ever since his 3600 page six-part autobiographical novel, “My struggle”, started appearing in English in 2012. Direct unguarded in tone, the book combine a micro-macro focus on the granular details of life with earnest meditation of art, death, music and ambition.

Many of his peers react with wow. “I read them compulsively; I can’t stop”, Jonathan Lethem said. Sometime he forces to you go to the next book compulsorily.

Writers love him and admire him so much but there is nothing you can learn from him as a writer because what makes his writing great is intangible, so elusive. There is nothing you can steal. He set a standard for all the authors but his own original style yet unique however not taking it lightly.

Let’s see an angle of science and research about Why do some teams fail while others excel? What are the differences that lead to success? The following four points summarize 20 years of research by [H J Leavitt and Lipman-blumen] Work matters. Job satisfaction does not necessarily translate into success. You can be quite happy and yet very unproductive. What is more important is what individuals find in their work. This creates intrinsic motivation that results in both satisfaction and productivity. Titles do not matter. Great people ignore hierarchies. The focus is on getting the work done, not who has the most prestigious title. Titles create expectations rather than work excellence. People bond in the heart of battle. There is a mistaken notion that building relationships through social interaction makes great teams. Rather, working together through crisis and challenges is what brings people together. 

An impressive example of why execution is the job of you:

The rise of the saffron from the ashes - by Bhavika

The chanting Mantras, The propounding channels, The shooting up TRPs and The outpouring predictions were barely the beginning on the political chaos.“Gubbaras popping” dialogs and The Shahazada being mocked at over the months kicked off the election fever. 

As have relished the overwhelming political drama in the world’s second most populous country and we have long awaited the most astonishing results too. Be it the news channels, their experts debating, predictions and forecasts, heart to heart interviews, controversial statements and rallies roaring with mantras and slogans pitching for votes or be it the Election Commission notices to top politicians in the country. In a way, as much as we have enjoyed this political faceoff; the people of this country have waited for the verdict. It is a day that has gone down in history for many more reasons than just election results day.

Magic numbers, never ever reached voting percentages, wisdom of voters, and ‘Jhaago Janab’ by TATA advertisements are some essential happenings to look at.  Throughout the election season, the Saffron has been emphasizing the fact about how important it is to achieve a basic majority with 272 seats for the NDA in the parliament. On the contrary, tri-colour has laid down foundation to hold its ground at getting a majority. Another blooming party “Jhaadu” claimed they would open their political career in the general elections with big numbers. Each Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalitha,  Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati and many others tried to create their own stake in the new government with confusing promises, controversial accusations and directionless strategies while promoting divisive politics. Some opinionated otherwise. This kept building up towards the crescendo. Then came the verdict and the future state of 125 crore Indians.

Gujaratis, Marathas, Rajasthanies, Dilliwalle, Biharis, Assamese, Madhya Pradeshi and UP’ites had a clean illumination of Saffron. The world's largest democracy with its highest ever voting percentage in history has finally delivered. A complete bloom of the Saffron with 284 seats – a 50% majority and multi-faceted allies of NDA with the golden number of 333 seats in the Lok Sabha elections have made Narendra Damodardas Modi - the Prime Minister elect; etching the golden words – Abki baar Modi Sarkar. History record book keepers were busy in scripting the highest margin wins in any general election for the Prime Ministerial candidate in this home land of Vadodara with 5.70 lakh votes and the alarming win in new turf of Varanasi –the  Kashi Nagari Punya bhumi over the others, yet another record. The Saffron illumination covered Uttar Pradesh with 71 of 80 seats; opening up winning constituencies in Kerala for the BJP, TDP’s win in the Seemandhra with its BJP alliance and TRS’s majority in the new state of Telangana with a highest voting percentage state, AIDMK’s strong hold in Tamil Nadu and TMC’s deep roots in West Bengal were some of the highs of this result day. Despite all these wins, it looked rather blurry against the dynamic rise of the Saffron.

From being a wow factor government to a disastrous UPA 2 with bad governance, zero accountability, the growing size of the black money in the Swiss bank, pointless bills passed and shameful leadership; the election was dreadful for some. The 150 years old Congress party failed to open its account in the 7 major states, looking at the trends of counting most experts called for a Congress loss as early at 10am on judgment day. This ended at 44 seats for the Congress and 60 seats for the UPA – its worst ever performance. The Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi despite competing from ancient Congress constituencies failed to make large margins. Established leaders like Kapil Sibal lost. There was not one state where the Congress had won seats in two digits. The ‘Haar Hath Shakti’ rather than appealing to be united created a lack of leadership. AAP opened its victory only in Punjab with 4 seats alone, failing their predictions. The Assam CM resigned over the defeat, the JDU, RJD, SP, BSP faired with single digit seats losing the battle at home ground only with the family members who fared well, DMK and MNS failed to win a single seat. The time has come when the government will need a coalition of form the Opposition.

The face of the Indian political system had been transformed into a country-wide shift against the Congress. Ruling out loyalty and dynasty politics – this is the awaken of the post-independence era. The people were no longer interested in the Left which only had 11 seats country-wide, the redistribution is not what they want. Going back to economics; they wanted growth. Past government formations were with coalitions and negotiations, this election result has given a single majority win post 1984. Some called it the polarization of votes by the BJP, while others argued that quintessential Indian voter has changed needs now, the needs BJP has promised to fulfill.  But it would be incomplete not to mention the charisma of the Prime Minister elect Narendra Modi in this election. His Gujarat development model,

The mesmerizing speeches at over 437 rallies,

The prime role of his social media stunt of 1.56 crore likes on his Facebook pages and 43 lakh followers On Twitter and over 8 lakh views on some of his interviews on Youtube, Holograms, 5500 video conferences and 650 3D rallies, 300,000 kilometers of clocking in travelling, the connect with the ground level or the strategy has worked wonders for him.  He also created world records – his victory tweet become the highest ever re-tweeted by India. Delegation of execution, thirst for development has driven him to glorious victory.

Uttar Pradesh which has always supported a Dalit leader has now re-shifted towards development and market based politics; thus a trend shifting away from notions that divide our nation. Most call this – a Modi tsunami. The country has MODI-fied. Being a chaiwalla’s proud son he says –

“I have never dreamt of becoming someone great; I have dreamt of doing great things.”

This is the sole principle behind his glory as a visionary.

This is a vote against crony capitalism, phony over-rated secularism and minority focused politics. The focus has been on eradication of such sentiments. The tectonic shift towards the Saffron domination is a vote for sustainable development and good governance. Verdict has been for stability, transparency, growing trade, international ties, and opportunities for all.  The mandate speaks for their belief in his school of thought. There has been a long on speculation about how this vote will be a vote for HOPE. The word hope itself has been outplayed to such enormity that it became the motto of this election. The ‘Ache din aane waale hain’ has played its part in campaigning, what remains is the future. Will the Modi led government deliver on its promises of hope and change? Kya ache din aa gaye hain?

Each and every next gen must understand and practice “I have never dreamt of becoming someone great; I have dreamt of doing great things.”

Six weapons of influence used Narendra Modi to the best

New thinking and new hope

While endeavoring to execute our dream effectively and efficiently, the six weapons of influence discussed hereunder can be leveraged in our day to day life:

Principle #6: Scarcity: In fundamental economic theory, scarcity relates to supply and demand. Basically, the less there is of something, the more valuable it is. The more rare and uncommon a thing, the more people want it. Nearly everyone is vulnerable to some form of the principle of scarcity. Opportunities seem more valuable when they are less available. Hard-to-get things are perceived as better than easy-to-get things. For example, the object you have almost decided to buy is out of stock. The salesperson offers to check their other stores. And guess what? A store across town has one left! Do you buy it? Of course! Indian railway used this opportunity very well. Once the rail travel reservations were automated, the reservation window was initially used to open for up to 30 days and people therefore started to reserve their tickets within the first seven days of the 30 day window. Subsequently, the Indian railway authorities extended the reservation window to 60 days to provide more time for the passengers. Even then, due to fear of tickets being sold-out, tickets were being reserved well in advance. Effective from October’2012, the window has been further been extended to four months advance reservations due to which all tickets are being booked 4 months in advance due to said fear of scarcity while the cancellation fees has become a big source of income for the Indian railways. 

Principle #5: Authority: People respect authority. They want to follow the lead of real experts. Business titles, impressive clothing, and even driving an expensive, high-performing automobile are proven factors in lending credibility to any individual. Most of us are raised with a respect for authority, both real and implied. Sometimes, people confuse the symbols of authority (titles, appearance, possessions) with the true substance. You can put this general principle to use by citing authoritative sources to support your ideas. Look and act like an authority yourself. Be sure others know that your education and experience supports your ideas. Dress like the people who are already in the positions of authority that you seek. Job titles, uniforms, and even accessories like cars or gadgets can lend an air of authority, and can persuade us to accept what these people say. One of my college friends happily put three designations to her title, while sending mails from her desk. I enquired ‘How can you manage such amount of work?’ She claimed that it was easy because people thought she was a big shot and they did her job more easily and additionally, it gave her opportunity to negotiate a better pay check. One study showed that 3 times as many pedestrians were willing to follow a man into traffic against the red light when he was merely dressed as an authority in a business suit and tie.

Principle #4: Liking: People prefer to say ‘yes’ to those they know and like. People are also more likely to favor those who are physically attractive, similar to themselves, or who give them compliments. People love to say ‘yes’ to requests from people they know and like. And people tend to like others who appear to have similar opinions, personality traits, background, or lifestyle. More people will say ‘yes’ to you if they like you, and the more similar to them you appear to be, the more likely they are to like you. Companies that use sales agents from within the community employ this principle with huge success. People are more likely to buy from people like themselves, from friends, and from people they know and respect.

Principle #3: Commitment and consistency: People do not like to back out of deals. We are more likely to do something after we have agreed to it verbally or in writing. People strive for consistency in their commitments. They also prefer to follow pre-existing attitudes, values and actions. We decide what is correct by noticing what other people think is correct. This principle applies especially to the way we determine what constitutes correct behavior. If everyone else is behaving in a certain way, most assume that that is the right thing to do. This principle of influence kicks in even more strongly when the situation is uncertain or people are not sure what to do. For instance, you would probably be more likely to support a colleague's project proposal if you had shown interest when he first talked to you about his ideas. Gorden Sinclair, a Chicago restaurant owner, was beset by the problem of no-shows—people who made table reservations but failed to appear and failed to call to cancel. He reduced the problem by first getting a small commitment. He instructed his receptionists to stop saying, ‘Please call if you change your plans’ and to start saying, Will you call us if you change your plans?’ The no-show rate dropped from 30% to 10% immediately.

Principle #2: Social proof: When people are uncertain about a course of action they tend to look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions. They especially want to know what everyone else is doing – especially their peers. Once people have made a choice or taken a stand, they are under both internal and external pressure to behave consistently with that commitment. When you can get someone to commit verbally to an action, the chances go up sharply that they will actually do it.

For example, before starting your next meeting, ask each person to commit to following the posted agenda. Then, if anyone goes off on a tangent, just ask them to explain how it fits the agenda. If they cannot, they will quickly fall back in line. One more example, we are more likely to work late if others in our team are doing the same, put a tip in a jar if it already contains money, or eat in a restaurant if it is busy. Here, we are assuming that if lots of other people are doing something, then it must be OK. Mass approach is the belief for a quality and sustainability. One researcher went door to door collecting for charity and carrying a list of others in the area who had already contributed. The longer the list, the more contributions it produced. We are particularly susceptible to this principle when we are feeling uncertain, and we are even more likely to be influenced if the people we see seem to be familiar to us. That is why commercial advertisements often leverage moms, not celebrities, to advertise household products.

Principle #1: Reciprocation:Reciprocation recognizes that people feel indebted to those who do something for them or give them a gift. All of us are taught we should find some way to repay others for what they do for us. You probably already use this principle, but it is much stronger than you suspect. You can build a sense of indebtedness in someone by delivering a number of uninvited ‘first favors’ over time. For example, if a colleague helps you when you are busy with an important health issue, you might feel obliged to support her ideas for improving their family. You might decide to buy more from a supplier if they have offered you an aggressive discount. Or, you might give money to a charity fundraiser who has given you a flower in the street. For example, according to the American Disabled Veterans organization, mailing out a simple appeal for donations produces an 18% success rate; but, enclosing a small gift in the form of personalized address labels boosts the success rate to 35%.

Concluding Recommendations: The six principles play an important role in all actions, challenges and opportunities of our day to day life. For instance, we might arrange a quick storage capacity and facility immediately if we are told that it is the day water will last. All these principles must be used with sense of improvement not otherwise. [Robert B. Cialdini Persuasion and Marketing, Influence]

The game changer – Social media

Social media the Impact

As I write this today, India has turned another historic page in the name of democracy and freedom.  As the Sun rises and sets in the world’s largest ever democracy, each one of us has caught on to the election fever. From the simple roadside chai-wallas to the multi-billionaires, home-makers to   bread-winners, ageing oldies to the first time voters have an inked finger; exercising their power – the right to vote the right to choose future of India.  But don’t we hear all this public galore, opinions, debates and political noise every five years? So, what makes 2014 so special? Social media and its game changing rules is the answer.

Thalaivar Rajinikanth has 2.28 lakh followers within the 24 hours of joining twitter, with one of them being BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Within minutes of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Abu Azmi’s comments on rape cases in India Facebook newsfeed went viral with slamming opinions about how insensitive and disrespect their statements were. No one waits for a daily newspaper to print these comments and then later its discussion with morning tea. It happens in real-time now and the general public is part of it. Even before the elections began, there were more than 5000 mentions of the emerging Aam Aadmi Party, today its website is on the highway to success with Arvind Kejriwal becoming on the most popular personalities on the internet. Having said that try typing in Namo; earlier just a Sanskrit word to express honor, now its symbolized Narendra Modi – the Wave and his ‘mere ek sau pachis karod bharat vaasi’. That is the power of social media today.

Social Media Devil with Purpose

Debut on a daily basis: On a daily basis, various competing hash-tags like #NaMoforPM, #KejriwalInVaranasi are making a debut and becoming the topic of core conversation for the day. They are constantly a part of the trending topics section on Twitter. AAP has 6.74lakh followers and 21.04 likes on Facebook. NaMo website has an audience to BJP’s 3D rallies which you can be part of from anywhere in the world. This online community is an influential community; much more educated, rational and thus politically aware. In turn social media is influencing the conventional media platforms.  

Global reach in real-time: News stories are often created out of the tweets of politician and very often they are the spicier ones. Political parties are integrating YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts and various micro-sites to reach out to these influencers. Aap ki Adalat has more viewers on Youtube than on its telecast time on the television. Google hangouts are encouraging real time feedback from the public. Such hangouts are reinstating the fact that politicians are available for the masses through advanced tech support.

  

Youth and Innovation

Trend setting campaigns: Another positive facet of the election activity lies in inspiring and motivated the youth to vote in the coming elections. More than 800 million voters will be below the age of 25 according to a survey by the time the elections arrive. Where do these youngsters spend their most time on, you ask? Operation Black Dot was launched to get young and new voters on board through various social media activities. Selfies with the inked finger is yet another voice of the masses about their right. This was followed by the controversial Selfie tweet by Narendra Modi with the Lotus and his inked finger on polling day.  First-time voters say it is a moment of pride to show to the world that they are part of the largest democratic process.

The new rules of the Election Commission: Social media has crept in so deep into the political framework that Election Commission is demanding transparency in the advertising budgets of these parties on various websites. Congress is accusing the BJP of spending more than Rs. 5000 crore on its social media campaign to create this ‘Modi-fication’ in the nation. Recently, the election commission was made mandatory for parties to submit their advertising spends to the election commission to maintain a record and avoid malpractices. Various guidelines have been rolled out with regards to advertisements by political parties.

 

Limit less Power

Social Media gives politicians a larger than life image: Social Media is a public platform and since there are no regulatory guidelines or credible cross checking tactics, political parties are left no stone unturned while boosting the image of their own party. This is creating a somewhat larger than life image of the leaders. A close cut competition between Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi; the evident number of likes, followers, connects on their social properties, shows who is more popular. Everybody wants to get a piece of the most talked about politician.

Social Media is creeping into mainstream media's political discussions

News Channels or Print media have started including, rather creating some key hash-tags which create a hurricane of tweets on Twitter, during the debate hour and go on for a few days. News presenters like Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami and their social media voice is seeped into mainstream. Videos, images, important actions/activities are discussed and promoted on these social sites through dedicated pages and accounts of the parties.

But, everything comes at a price. Social media has also proven to be a double edged sword for leaders like Digvijay Singh, who pictures with a new presenter where leaked on the web and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was criticised over the authenticity of his interview with Punya Prasun Bajpai as the former Delhi Chief Minister. So the verdict stands tall, social media is an exceptional tool to target the masses of India, reach the right audience, influence them and live the change - given you play by its rules. To survive in this real-time battle of social media campaigning, you must be the game changer not the follower.

Article by: Bhavika a youth inspired by social media power