Mid-Day Opinion: Gatekeeping Goregaon on Instagram

A view of the Malad creek at sunset from a high-rise in Goregaon West. Pic/Aditi Alurkar

If you are a reader of this column, you will remember my rant on the fashion magazine editor who deemed peacocks on Pedder Road an indicator of the tax bracket of the people who live there. You could say it came from a caustic place in my heart that wants to attack people who always make an intrigued, and surprised, face when I tell them where I stay, and ask, "Why Goregaon"? And so, I made a Reel on "Why Goregaon?" It tried to explain why Goregaon is such a cool suburb - and why nobody, especially people staying in SoBo, and Bandra West, should ever ask "why Goregaon?" I cited examples - It's five minutes from the Metro, eight minutes from Goregaon station, 10 minutes from the Western Express Highway, six minutes from a really cool mall, five minutes from a pilates class, eight minutes from a landscaped garden…. You get the drift.

I expected the Reel to go viral, but it did more. It went very viral - it has 110k views as of now, and had been shared 5.1k times, and had 216 comments. And, I felt vindicated.

It took me back to a time when I had seen a Bandra creator, who, tired of the crowd and the influencers on every corner, asked people to stay in their own suburbs. She asked visitors to Bandra to find restaurants and coffee shops in their own neighbourhoods. She tried to gatekeep the queen of the suburbs that everyone feels is their own. At that time, I was even more pissed. Bhai, Bandra is not your pop's, that you can ask people to not come by anymore. But last week, the Goregaonkars were as committed to saving Goregaon from the onslaught of outsiders. Many asked me not to share all our secrets and insisted I gatekeep the suburb instead. And some just told the non-Goregaon residents, "Please don't come here". Some had placard-worthy slogans ready, "Protect Goregaon", and "Goregaon Supremacy"!

It made me realise that even on social media, we are trying hard to celebrate our identity, and once in a while when we find a creator who helps us do that, we say "aye" in unison. The Reel, like any other Reel that goes viral, made people feel included, and connected, and, most importantly, "seen". It's a good lesson to learn for content creators - anything that makes another person feel seen, heard, and represented, could be successful on Instagram. I would say that the same principle works in relationships, well, but that's a different column.

It's why the Bandra creator who asked us all not to come visit her neighbourhood, eventually removed her Reel. It's because people felt united in the fact that she was wrong in asking us to do so! Lol. Everyone who loved Bandra, and "saw" Bandra for what it is - a suburb that most Mumbaikars see as their Greenwich Village - felt snubbed at the thought that they could be asked to not come by. People like feeling like they belong, that they matter, that what they stand for means something. It's the baseline for most content that works. Everyone liking, sharing, and commenting are people who suddenly feel that someone gets how they feel. That is what makes me love social media even more - whoever you are, you will find representation here.

And for anyone who wants to visit Goregaon, please come by. I am reminded of a Sex and the City dialogue, where Charlotte tries to placate Miranda on her shifting homes by saying, "New York Magazine says Brooklyn is the new Manhattan". And Miranda replies, "Whoever wrote that, must live in Brooklyn". That episode was aired in 2004, and well now, Brooklyn is cooler than Manhattan. The latest rumour is that "Goregaon is the new Bandra". It may have been written by someone who stays in Goregaon, I parrot Miranda. In 10 years, we will have it made.

See you next week.

Ranting and raving about all that's trending on social media, Aastha Atray Banan is an author, creator, podcaster, and the Editor of your favourite weekend read, Sunday mid-day. She posts at @aasthaatray on Instagram.
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.