Turning into (sort of) celebrity and extended FaceBook network

A brief introduction about me - 

I am an IIT Madras and IIMB alumni with about 10+ years of research and development experience with MNCs like Oracle and Satyam (research group), and startups like DeciDyn (as AVP) and Vimagino (as Usability and Domain Expert), in handling large data using machine learning techniques across domains (healthcare, audio data, retail, banking, travel etc). Also as part of exploring into my own venture I have worked in understanding social data over internet. I have a number of conference publications, presentations, and published articles related to the mentioned work.

Apart from business and technology, I also have an artistic inclination and have published my first work of fiction called “Life, Odds & Ends”, by LiFi publications in Jan this year. I have done a significant research in the topics related to society, and work-life balance while define outlines and characters in my stories for this book. The related research work is further presented at IIT Madras (lecture during Saarang 2014), and IIIT Bangalore. 

A detailed profile @ LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/anvitabajpai

A few links on my work - 

A talks on Product Usability at UXINDIA 2013 - http://2013.ux-india.org/speaker/anvitabajpai and further a specialised version of the topic is presented at Devices Group at CTO office at WIPRO Technologies. 

A few articles published - 


“Futuristic Technologies, and Hindu Mythology” - http://www.marketexpress.in/2013/09/futuristic-technologies-and-mythology.html


A complete list of published work can be found at my LinkedIn profile.


Turning into (sort of) celebrity and FaceBook network

Now as I have become an author from a technology person, I have extended my network. I started making appearances in a few literary events, and people know my name. Not only that, in the Usability conference, where I was speaker, a co-speaker said, "I know an author with name Anvita Bajpai", and I replied, "I am the same person. 

In this process, I started getting more and more FB connection requests. Initially I was conscious, and used to connect only with people I have personally met. Slowly, my connection request approval criteria became the 'number of mutual friends'.

There also came a day, when I meet someone in person and then realise that we are already connected at FB or LinkedIn. So now in a crowd I happen to have a conversation (of type), "Hey! I am your FB/LinkedIn friend. ... So how's book going?" And I rarely find myself alone in all sorts of crowd. 

So as the network was expending, and I was getting many connection request each day, I started to accept 90% of then based on a brief browsing of their profile and otherwise too. FB recommendation engine also helped me get good connects. 

A feel good factor comes when people praise my work in public posts or (mostly in) private emails/messages - and even very senior people like what I write. This fan-list, and fan-mails keeps me motivated with what I do, and I too feel thankful towards them.

An further better feeling comes when people look up to me and seek guidance or advice for their life/problems.

A consciousness factor comes when people start noticing my pics etc., (as the profile was originally for created for keeping touch with friends and family only, many years ago) or keep sending unnecessary chat requests and I end up un-friending them from my list, if I feel bothered. 

As a result, I also end up posting most of professional updates, and my social FB page has become a profession FB page now. 

Manytimes, I don't understand when in the busy world we live in, we don't have much time to keep in touch with many of our family and friends too, how can one think of spending time talking to strangers, without any professional interest? But, yes! I agree, many of us may have that much time and rarely understand the other side of story. I many times feel like replying/posting that I have written blogs/articles/book and so on, you may read that instead of trying to get/read my chat replies. But that would sound too rude, so don't do that - and just ignore, until I don't feel offensive to the extend of un-friending s'one. For a second, I can relate to the (old) Amir Khan who used to maintain distance from press, and Salman's fights with press - I empathise, and also realise that once I enter into a profession in arts, where people know/notice me - I need to be more tactful and have muted emotions for certain interactions.

I am sure many fellow authors would agree with me. 

So my resolution to the extended connection stress is -
  1. Feel good with professional praise as that helps one keeping the motivation level high for doing good work. 
  2. Help the needy, and give back to society.
  3. Keep an eye open for collaborative work/professional connects.
  4. Mute the rest.

Now I know how to handle the status of turning into (sort of) celebrity :)


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