Do you have problem with social media successes like Dolly Chaiwalla? Just sit back and enjoy reels

Indian Express

16 hours ago

Two days ago, there was an announcement on social media from a person planning to expand their business through a franchise model, opening tea shops and cafes across the country. In a country that has witnessed a boom of homegrown brands offering freshly brewed tea and coffee over the last decade or so, this could have been a regular announcement, easily lost among the crowd of businesses opening and shutting every day. Except, this entrepreneur wasn't the usual businessman or 'start-up' bro. He is a humble, semi-literate Nagpur-based tea seller who goes by the name Dolly Chaiwalla and has amassed over 5 million Instagram followers with his flamboyant style and a chai that has the endorsement of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
While some wished him well and others offered him business advice, there were a few who seemed to have a meltdown. 'Education is a scam in India', went one comment – a not-so-veiled dig at Dolly Chaiwalla's lack of formal education.
Barely 10 days before this, an X user targeted popular content creator Apoorva Mukhija, better known as The Rebel Kid, lamenting how the 24-year-old has built a 'Rs 41 crore empire' with 'reels and red lipsticks' while 'not even 100 people know me' despite a 14-hour study schedule and an IIT background. While it is not clear if Mukhija's net worth is actually Rs 41 crore, the rant and personal attack on her and Dolly, for making it despite an IIT-IIM background, reeks of the contempt that many from so-called top-tier educational institutions have for people who they think are not so 'bright'.
Who is to decide what being smart actually is? Is it only about confining yourself to a room for hours on end to crack a highly competitive exam? What about those who don't have the resources or the neurotypicality required for such education but are smart enough to know what works in the era they live in and are willing to reinvent themselves accordingly? And is being academically bright the only skill that counts? What about being funny, relatable, innovative, resilient and empathetic?
For far too long, people from elite institutions have believed themselves to be a cut above the rest. Businesses and services have also tapped into the craze, with at least one matrimonial website catering to only IIT-IIM graduates. Recently, a leading bank issued a card accessible only to those who have studied in elite institutes of the country.
But the world is changing. At a time when many from coveted engineering branches are having sleepless nights about the possibility of losing their jobs to automation, there are countless people from the country's big and small towns making it big by creating content.
Do they deserve the fame and money? Absolutely. Like any other job, content creation is honest work. It requires effort and a thick skin. You need to be sharp and funny. And, of course, smart. To know what is going to work, what will be relatable, and what will be counted as funny. To be able to do so without a market research firm at your disposal requires some smarts, doesn't it?
Those who take issue with the social media success stories must ask themselves: Why do they think that only a few people, those who either come from money or who have had an elite education, have the right to access the good things in life? Why does an IITian setting up a Chaayos or a NYU graduate establishing a Blue Tokai not rattle them, but a Dolly Chaiwalla does?
Thankfully, Dolly and Mukhija don't really care for the naysayers. While Dolly has received over 1,600 applications for his business, Mukhija clapped back at the X user.
With the world rapidly changing and once-coveted careers losing their relevance, it is about time that we come to terms with the changing nature of employment. Increasingly, it seems that being relevant and resilient are what the world needs.
And if that's too much to stomach, just sit back and enjoy a few of their reels.
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