My airport story ..

So, I have a long history of almost meeting celebrities, those who have read my earlier posts will know what I mean. And so, as it is bound to happen, history repeated itself a couple of weeks ago at the Mumbai Domestic Airport.

I was returning back to Bangalore after a 3-day IT Expo and conference, tired and with a bit of a sore throat (it’s uncanny but every time I visit the city, I get this ailment). Anyways, I was dutifully like a good citizen standing in the security check line, when suddenly I spied a pretty lady in a simple black salwar kameez picking up a tiny pink suitcase and standing on the other side of the security check. She looked very familiar, but for the life of me I could not remember where I had seen her before. Was she a business associate I met at the conference, was she someone from Bangalore, was she from my organization? My brain was working furiously but I simply could not place her. I must have made her conscious with my snake-like staring, but she was pretty composed and was chatting amiable with the Jet Airways staff helping her with her luggage, while at the same time looking at me as if she was expecting me to come up to her and say hello, which I would have if only I could place her!

After our ‘staring competition’, I got my security check done and left the place without greeting the lady in black, who soon let the place with her male assistant wheeling her tiny pink suitcase.

It was only after entered a bookstore while waiting to board and picked up a magazine and saw a doe-eyed pretty face staring at me, did it finally dawn on me that I just missed saying hello to the very talented actress of Parineeta & Dirty Picture - Vidya Balan!

India Calling...

A good friend of mine, H called me up the other day and yelped excitedly "TD Jakes is considering coming to India and guess what it's all because of a tweet ( Well, he actually said a tweet and God's hand!).

For those who haven't heard of Bishop TD Jakes, well he's one of the better knows evangelists of today. Founder of The Potter's House , a motivational speaker and author. And my friend like so many others is a HUGE fan of his preaching and style , so much so that sometimes when he preaches, the TD Jakes style invariably sneaks in. But this post is not about TD Jakes or my friend or even about TD Jakes coming to India (though I am happy that he is).

This is about the power social media . To understand that we must get back to the TD Jakes story. Well, after H calmed down (which essentially meant started breathing again), he let me on what exactly happened. Shyju, his close friend had apparently posted a tweet on TD Jake’s profile about how his sermons had been a blessing to him. Surprisingly the Bishop replied saying he had no idea people in India knew about him and his sermons and what would be a good place to visit for a first-timer. Well, that got Shyju all excited and he created a post on his blog asking people to tweet on how TD Jakes had been a blessing to them and inviting him to India, which they did with enthusiasm. Well, that set the ball rolling and now things are now moving ahead!

It set me wondering, if it weren’t for the transparency and connectivity social media offers, how would a 25 year old greenhorn evangelist based in India interact with a 63 year old renowned preacher living in Texas. Social media is not only bringing people closer, it is more importantly empowering them. It’s no wonder celebrities, governments and other corporates are leveraging Social Media to function more efficiently. In fact Gartner predicts that by 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users. I am not too sure how good this prediction stands, but it sure demonstrates the popularity Social Media carries.

So whether a Shyju reaches to a TD Jakes via twitter or a 13 year old amateur singer Rebecca Black reaches more than 15,000,000 listeners via YouTube, it’s a simple demonstration of the power Social Media can harness, a power that changes lives, changes people, changes destiny!