mid-day Opinion: This ‘Melodi’ is very, very spicy

A screengrab from a video posted on May 20, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifts a pack of Melody toffees to his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, during a meeting in Rome, Italy. Pic/PTI

My friend from college, and journalist, Samidha Sharma noted on one of our shared WhatsApp groups that the colour of PM Narendra Modi's pocket square matched that of Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's sweater - it was a light pink. Now we were asking ourselves if that was also a strategic plan - much like the "melody" video that swept social media like a wave on Wednesday, during a diplomatic visit by the PM to Italy. The only thing that could give it stiff competition was Salman Khan's multiple selfies, uploaded after his run-in with the paps, proclaiming that he may be 60, but he hadn't lost the fight.

There was also the other niggle on social media - the one about Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng going viral for asking the PM questions about press freedom. That story itself has taken a turn. In an interview with NDTV journalist Gaurie Dwivedi, Lyng struggled to shed light on what she knew about India other than yoga and curry, and what she thought of racist stereotyping in a controversial cartoon published in one of the Norwegian newspapers.

But the duo of the week was Melodi for sure. It was in 2023 that the name mashup had begun - during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, social media users began blending the last names of the two leaders to create the portmanteau #Melodi. Three years later, the two leaders officially adopted it with a reel that has the Italian PM thanking PM Modi for getting her a packet of Melody. How they laugh after that joke, is the icing on the cake for me.

Why is the PM in Italy? Well, India and Italy upgraded their ties to a special strategic partnership, firmed up a defence industrial roadmap, and vowed to expand annual trade to Euro 20 billion by 2029. That's a lot! But as critics said, maybe "foreign policy was increasingly being reduced to social media optics". And Rahul Gandhi went on to call it a "farce", "an insult to every Indian". He was upset over the disconnect of this light moment, as Indians suffer from inflation and unemployment.

Then there were people like Polish travel creator Agni, who goes by the handle @the_polishtravelgirl, and lives in India. She said in her explainer video (it's got 1.2 million views and climbing, and almost 4600 reshares), the melody moment made "diplomacy feel human, instead of robotic". She goes on to say, "Politics may be serious, global strategy might be serious, but leaders who can bring warmth, humour, reliability in difficult times often become the ones who are remembered the most". She ends her video with praise for the PM, by saying that the position India had globally now is because "one leader, without stopping, gave India the place it always deserved."

For me, it taught us five lessons about social media.

Lesson no. 1: Be audacious. Who cares what anyone says? Do the unthinkable.

Lesson no. 2: Embrace the names people give you. Reclaim the good and the bad.

Lesson no. 3: There is no such thing as bad press. Use it all to hype yourself up. If you can get the people talking, if you have trolls, you have made it for sure.

Lesson no. 4: Give people something new to talk about. Old news is no news. Take the rumour, take the controversy, one step ahead. Give the rabid social media followers something to bite their teeth into.

Lesson no. 5: Don't care about the backlash. You do you, king or queen.

The Melody moment just goes to show that if you know what you are doing, have the nerve to be bold in the face of being scrutinised, trolled, and criticised, then you can go viral, be known, and be the talk of the town.

It's all about taking the lemons and making lemonade.

See you next time.

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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