Here’s how Jaipur’s social media influencers are spending their quarantine

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Thanks to the ongoing Lockdown, people are increasingly more glued to their mobile screens. Either they are tirelessly exhausting content on Netflix and YouTube or constantly refreshing their social media feeds as new trends are going viral every day during the quarantine. Celebrities, social media influencers, bloggers and content creators are especially trying out new ways of wooing their audience as views, clicks, likes and shares are at an all time high. The bloggers and content creators from Jaipur are also creating and participating in global trends with great enthusiasm.

A social media influencer from Jaipur, Radhika Agarwal aka The Foodie Devi says: “The world has come to a stand-still because of the lockdown. I am a full time food blogger and like most of the other people who are able to ‘work from home, I certainly cannot do the same. It’s a very difficult period and most of the people, especially bloggers, are feeling extremely de-motivated to create content since we are not able to go out. But we are “creators” and so we need to create content for our audience who are all the more active on social media these days. I have started cooking these days and I make sure I cook at least one new dish every day. It helps me stay productive and it also helps my followers to try new recipes. Apart from this I work out at least 3 days a week and motivate my followers to do the same.”

The importance of working out for at least half an hour daily during this period cannot be stressed enough. Keeping this in mind, fitness trainers have also taken to social media to keep their followers and clients motivated to workout at home. A Jaipur based fitness trainer and influencer, Shivangi Sarda (Fitness.Trail on Instagram) is using video conferencing to host LIVE workout sessions for her clients. She recently also posted a 500 Reps Challenge which got quite popular. Telling more about the challenge, she said that the challenge aims at motivating people to continue their fitness regime at home through exercises like burpees, squats, push ups etc. Since the challenge required one to time themselves, it generated interest among people to complete the challenge as quickly as possible and also flaunt it on Social Media. Shivangi has also put out fitness videos suitable for children too.

The Fitness.Trail conducting an online session

Since the restaurants and cafes as well as most delivery services are shut, people are donning their aprons and whipping delicacies at home. And people are sharing, rather over sharing, their creations online to their friends and followers. City’s well known restaurant consultant sister duo, Ratika and Richa (popularly known as Cauldron Sisters) share: “We have started a cookery series #SistersKeSaathCookKarona on our social media handles, where we publish stepwise recipe of a simple dish. These include salads like Burmese Salad, Noodle Salad, Chickpea Salad and other dishes like refried beans and spaghetti, among others.”

A spaghetti in making by Cauldron Sisters

A raging trend on Social Media right now is that of Dalgona Coffee. Dalgona coffee is made by whipping equal proportions of instant coffee, sugar and hot water until it becomes creamy and then adding it over ice and cold milk. Bloggers of the city have been putting up videos explaining how it is made and challenging their followers to do the same. Richa Kumbhat of And Then I Ate too recently put up a video explaining how the coffee is made. Explaining how she’s making the most of this phase of social distancing and isolation, she says: “We’re grabbing this opportunity with both our hands to connect to our audience even more. Since more people are at home and cooking for themselves, we have taken it upon ourselves to inspire people to smile big, laugh hard and eat good. In times like these, food provides comfort to the soul and we are ensuring we can make people feel a little better by putting up easy recipes that require the use of as little ingredients as possible. In fact, we have never done videos before this ever (for over 4 years!) but since we have more time on our hands, we’re trying to polish our skills and produce more interesting content.”

Richa Kumbhat trying out her dalgona coffee.

An Instagram and YouTube content creator from Jaipur, Ashlesha collaborated with the other content creators from Jaipur to make their own version of the popular track ‘Kudi Nu Nachne De’ from English Medium. Telling about how this idea came to her mind, she says: “On the first day of lockdown I was super bored at home and came across this video of “kudi nu nachne de” on Internet and I thought it will be such a great idea to collaborate with all my power puff girls of Jaipur to show every one that if you are getting bored at home just dance your heart out because this actually makes you feel good about yourself. There was no choreography in the video and we all danced like no one is watching. The response was mind-boggling and people instantly started tagging their friends to do the same. I never imagined that a simple, natural, non-choreographed dance can inspire so many people.”

A still of Ashlesha from the video ‘Kudi Nu Nachne De’

Talking about videos, one can’t miss out on the mention of TikTok – the Chinese video-sharing social networking service. Popular for creating short dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos, the lockdown period is seeing more and more people signing up on the app and producing videos. Other trends that deserve a mention include people sharing screenshots of video calls wherein they are seen re-connecting with their old pals or celebrating occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.

Cafes, restaurants and many others have also taken to ‘Have You Ever Bingo Challenges’ to keep the netizens engaged. The participants use a template to fill in the activities they have done or not done in their lives. After this, they post the stories on their Instagram and other social media platforms and nominate other friends to take up the challenge.

It is safe to say that the Coronavirus is not the only thing getting viral during the lockdown.