Metaphorically, there are already a large number of Ravanas on all the social networking sites today. However, I was wondering what will happen if The Ravana of the Dushera fame (for the younger generation who understand only through such puerile linkages) decided to open himself up to the hoi-polloi of the world through Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

pipi_wisdom

I do hope that Ravana has read up a lot on the secrets of success on any of the social networking sites and I fervently hope he has more than one desired traits which include:

•    a high degree of knowledge that is currently in demand,
•    an unflinching focus to reach a higher position or status or condition,
•    firm and confident stance for one’s ideas as well as relationship promotion,
•    creative inclinations to give you that final push, and
•    an uncanny ability to reach out to those who matter and impress them.

Whenever I look at anyone who has a good following on facebook or twitter or linkedin I tend to tell myself that Ravana and Ram may actually be competing less with each other than with most of us who are already there.

Let us, however, consider the competitive stance of Ravana from a contemporary perspective.

1.    Was Ravana a scholar? Sure, he was… what with his knowledge of the 6 shashtras and the 4 vedas, he certainly had the ability to shake the core of our present day geniuses with their smattering of Covey and Drucker. With his vast spiritually-ready knowledge, Ravana obviously will have something ravishing and interesting for every occasion… he would always be there to add value to every conversation that seems to be going on networking sites without a break. Just imagine Ravana’s popularity every time he changed his status to hit out some neta or babu on FB with a handy quote from the Vedas, or tweeted about some of his female conquest in his own special sensual verbiage making even Tharoor sound pedestrian, or simply shared some managerial sprout endorsed by the Gods themselves on linkedin! Crazy. People will go crazy.

On the other hand will Ram be able to compete with the likes of Modi and Tharoor? How many FB friends can one make by talking of the delights of vegetarianism? Are vanvas descriptions and bhajans in demand? Well, Ram may certainly manage a few followers on Youtube, but that’s about it. His being a reincarnation of Vishnu doesn’t impress the pseudo-intellectual who haunts the social networking sites today… these people need instant snippets of solution-mongering knowledge that they can adopt (or at best, adapt) to impress their own bosses (who are equally ignorant). So Ram with all his ‘potential’ seems to have lost ground on the first step itself.

2.    Was Ravana focused? Did you know that the real Ravana wanted to cross the cycles of birth and death to attain Nirvana… and the only way was to incite Ram (Vishnu in his mortal garb) to come over and kill him. This is precisely what he manipulated by abducting Sita. One word for this in today’s parlance is FOCUS.

And FOCUS is exactly what they always imply but never really teach in any of our B-schools. This trait is what our young graduates learn when they log on to FB or twitter or linkedin and start picking up critical snippets of knowledge that is street smart. And, if they’re lucky they will have Ravana on their friend list and he will make them move up the ladder of their dream career faster.

Focus here simply means an in-depth awareness of the keywords that matter. These keywords help you reach out more effectively and give you that edge that the business world seeks. One such keyphrase is ‘please the boss’. For instance, Ravana knew how to please Brahma. I quote from Wikipedia:

“Following his initial training, Ravana performed an intense penance to Brahma (the Creator God), lasting several years. During his penance, Ravana chopped off his head 10 times as a sacrifice to appease Brahma. Each time he sliced his head off a new head arose, thus enabling him to continue his penance. At last, Brahama, pleased with his austerity, appeared after his 10th decapitation and offered him a boon. Ravana asked for immortality, which Brahma refused to give, but gave him the celestial nectar of immortality. The nectar of immortality, stored under his navel, dictated that he could not be vanquished for as long as it lasted.

Ravana also asked for absolute invulnerability from and supremacy over gods, heavenly spirits, other rakshas, serpents, and wild beasts. Contemptuous of mortal men, he did not ask for protection from these. Brahma granted him these boons in addition to his 10 severed heads and great strength by way of knowledge of divine weapons and magic. Thus ravana known as ‘Dasamukha’ (Dasa = ten, mukha = mouth/face).”

Remember, Ravana was very clear about his focus. In a contemporary sense, he obviously knows how to use Google Alerts, TweetDeck, Seesmic and all the other tools and applications that help him monitor online conversations. Ravana was, after all, the King of Lanka and if he could control the rising and the setting of the Sun and the Moon, he could surely manage an 8 MBPS speed for his internet account! What about Ram? Lets just say that he was for too long in a real jungle where development hadn’t yet reached. Once in a while he did manage to reach out to the developed cities when he hit some village that had a handicapped-operated MTNL phone booth. Ram may have heard some rumours about the world being overtaken by the internet superhighway but all he could experience was a rural phone that gave a spiritual hum most of the time!

3.    The modern day mantra is ‘aggression’… was Ravana aggressive? Well, ask the apsara Rumbha or any of the thousands of women that he seems to have impressed by his qualities, though he ended up marrying just three beautiful ones. Now just see the aggressive way people go about their daily task of trying to impress young and old females on the networking sites today… surely this cannot be Ram-influenced!

What is implied here is that the success mantra on networking sites implies a build-up of your face properly and diligently. Friends and followers are more comfortable conversing with someone who has a name and picture… besides a history or some potential future scandal! Another thing to remember is that Ravana never promoted himself through any prop or his own Kingdom… in fact, Lanka got promoted because of the popularity buzz of Ravana. Thus, interacting on behalf of your business and using the name of your business as signature can backfire.

Aggression here isn’t really your ability to put down others… no. It is simply the way you familiarize yourself to the governing rules and regulations of each social platform and abide by them. This familiarity puts you in a vantage position and you can move faster, higher and with more smug security than others.

Now let us for a moment see where Ram stands… arre baba, you forget that Ram isn’t net-savvy. He’d probably have to ask his brother back in Ayodhaya to register him on FB or twitter and then will not know what to do next. So there will probably be a team of Royal clerks to tweet or update FB status for Ram after the file has moved to all echelons of approvals… and after the CWG fiasco, you all know very well how difficult such file movements are. So despite all the Royal trappings back home, Ram is probably going to be in a more competitive position only once he is back after his vanvas or exile. Until then, it is Ravana who is destined to have all the online fun!!

4.    Ravana was the true creative genius. This is the most amazing secret of his success. If only one was sought for his supremacy over Ram on the social networking scene today, it is this that places Ravana on the pedastal.

You’ve all read about his mastery of the Veena. In fact, the insignia on his flag carried a picture of Veena on it. The Veena is a musical instrument of Goddess Saraswati too… and mastering it means ruling the radio waves! And the AV channels too! And having a powerful presence on YouTube… and thus winning the guerilla warfare that viral marketing is all about! Being a creative genius is a hands down winning streak!

The Wikipedia also adds: “Pleased with his resilience and devotion, Shiva gave to him the divine sword Chandrahas  (Chandra-Moon, Has-laugh, literally ‘the laughter of the moon’ but referring to the shape formed by a crescent moon which resembles a smile). It was during this incident that he acquired the name ‘Ravana’, meaning “(He) Of the terrifying roar”, given to him by Shiva – the earth is said to have quaked at Ravana’s cry of pain when the mountain was pinned on him. Ravana in turn became a lifelong devotee of Lord Shiva and is said to have composed the hymn known as Shiva Tandava Stotra.” Besides this, Ravana also authored Ravana Sanhita, a powerful book on the Hindu astrology and had excellent knowledge of Ayurveda and political science. Imagine, Ravana being the FB consultant for astro predictions… Bejan Daruwala is going to be just a next door kid in comparison!

Original writing and creativity is what we are talking about… and this isn’t chiklit stuff of Chetan Bhagat and there isn’t any Zoya factor in it!! Truth is that even Chetan Bhagat is far better than most of us on the social networking sites with our propensity to simply copy and paste anything interesting that someone other than us has penned or authored. This does impress a few of our friends or followers, but in the long run once they realize that creative genius is limited to stumbling across some fascinating words and phrases and picking them up to share, we are discarded as nothing better than pseudo-literary rag-pickers! So copy and paste at your own peril… do it and end up being neither a Ram nor a Ravana.

Does Ram finally score a point over Ravana in the creativity perspective? From the creative angle, Ram probably inspired others to write or to create… but he himself (in his mortal avatar, of-course) did nothing much. Sometimes it surprises me that he had all the time in the world for 14 years and didn’t motivate himself to write even a few love poems on Sita or some lampooning limericks on Sroopnakha? Ram didn’t even try to sketch any of the demons and daityas that he encountered so often. So from this point of view, Ravana once again wins hands down.

Your mantra, therefore, must be to stay away from promising something that you can’t deliver. Ram was probably an encounter specialist who preferred to stay away from the media glare… so it isn’t his fault that even here Ravana scores! Social media has the tendency to become viral and you do not want to see negative feedback about your business or yourself all over the Web. You do have a lot to learn from Ravana!!

5.    One final trait that takes Ravana straight on the victory stand is his networking expertise! Ravana knew the art of making friends at the highest places… Brahma and Shiva being a couple of obvious examples. He had the ability to work his way towards their heart and get them to grant him the most outrageous gifts that included the divine sword Chandrahas and the celestial juice of Immortality by Brahma! Though this is one trait where even Ram wasn’t lagging behind. How will you compare a few monkeys with the divine sword and the celestial juice that Ravana managed for himself! Though the ultimate victory of Ram over Ravana goes on to show that we must try to befriend all those who appear to be just monkeying around on the social networking sites…

Ravana

In the final analysis, Ravana will end up being a highly popular personality on any of the social networking sites… in fact he will also give people like Shobha De a run so far as blogging is concerned and will leave Modi, Tharoor, and Chetan Bhagat far behind in micro-blogging too. So go on and move fast to let Ravana inspire you to give your best and get the best from these sites… so long as another one doesn’t emerge!
Arvind Passey
17 October 2010

© Arvind Passey