Selfie might have entered the dictionary last year, but I was bitten by the selfie bug way back in college... way back when the world was not yet aware of the word ‘selfie’! At that time, it simply meant clicking my own picture for the simple reason that being a self-proclaimed photoholic, I have an insatiable heart that is rarely happy with the results of others’ efforts to click me. Either the light or the focus or, for that matter, the angle seemed so wrong. So,I took on the mammoth task of clicking my own pictures that would be just perfect, or near perfect!
Self-obsessed? Er… a bit :P
My first selfie was clicked with the help of my first camera phone — the good ol’ Nokia N70. The technology was VGA, and needless to say the quality of the picture was BAD. But over the years, technology improved and so did my pictures.
I started taking better selfies, but one thing remained constant — the folks who saw me taking selfies probably thought I was a loony bin. Initially, due to the positioning of the camera, they would think I was clicking them, which was funny. And later, when they saw me flipping my phone out to click myself, they probably wondered what I was doing.
But now the world has changed... for the better. After the coinage of the term ‘selfie’, actors to cricketers to politicians and everybody in between indulge in selfies. And so did I, with them.
CLICKING SELFIES WITH CELEBS
God must be a selfieholic because I’ve got a job where meeting celebs comes with the job! And, of course, I never pass up a fraction of an opportunity to click a selfie with them.
So, for those of you wondering, ‘How do you ask a celeb for a selfie?’, well, one really doesn’t have to ask more than once — ever since the big ‘S’ word popped up, stars are more used to clicking pictures than giving autographs!
Rule No. 1: Keep the front camera of your phone ready, with a five-second timer set before approaching the celeb!
Rule No. 2: Just because you are clicking a selfie and you get to, um, stand close to your favourite star, doesn’t mean you forget your manners. After requesting the celeb, keep a comfortable distance — don’t get so overwhelmed by the feeling of being close that you, er, pounce on him/ her. Maintaining a slight distance is advisable though not desirable!
Rule No. 3: Know your best angle. A true selfieholic would already know that. For example, I always keep the celebs on my left because holding the camera in my right hand gives me a non-blurry picture (with your star crush next to you, you are bound to get butterflies in your stomach and your hand might shake).
Rule No. 4: 5,4,3,2,1 *click* selfie done! Yay, that’s good, but never get so excited that you move on to checking the picture before thanking the celeb. Be modest, smile and stay courteous... and they might agree to pose for another one if the previous one went wrong (that actually happened when I clicked my first picture with Shah Rukh Khan and my camera malfunctioned. (But then... SRK’s presence can make even technology trip!)
Rule No. 5: What follows after a selfie is checking and seeing it for the umpteenth time till you can shut your eyes and visualise the picture. That’s when your heart is at peace while your inner self wants to clap and somersault! Of course, you cannot wait to upload and WhatsApp it to your friends. ‘What?!’, ‘Am Jealous’, ‘I HATE you’, ‘How could you click a picture with my love SRK/Sushant/Randeep/Varun?’ are what I get in almost about 150+ comments and 200+ likes! All in good spirit.
Leave alone Facebook, whenever I upload a selfie with a star on WhatsApp, I get flooded with ‘OMG’ and ‘Wow’ from people I barely interact with or people who have never bothered to drop in even a ‘hi’.
I remember my ex (who is not even ‘friends’ on any social media site) inboxing me saying, ‘Holy shit, is that really you next to XYZ?’
Well, yes, such is the power of a selfie with a star, so before I literally faint a million times seeing my heart-throb right in front of me, I tell my heart to calm down because ‘first lemme take a selfie!’ ;)
Life with selfies is a normal life. And without means no mirror as your front camera now does that for you! — iLead student Manraj Jawanda, a “serious selfieholic!”
My life gets documented thanks to the selfies but now I am looking forward to the next big thing after selfie — Oiendrila Ray at Roxy, a self-confessed “borderline selfieholic” and the lady behind fashion label Nee & Oink, seen here with couture jeweller Raj Mahtani.
Have you tried the donut selfie? Do… what? No, the donut selfie has nothing to do with the doughnut. It is a new way of taking a video selfie, made popular by San Francisco’s Karen X. Cheng, whose donut selfie (below) went viral in the virtual world.
1.Put your phone on front camera and hold it horizontally so that you get the best 360-degree environment.
2.Record yourself as you move your phone left to to right (or vice versa) in a circular pattern that starts on one side of your face and ends in the ear on the other side. Check out Karen’s ‘Donut Selfie Tutorial’ on YouTube.
3.Do this at several places — stadium, car, beach — where the background is different.
4.Edit the video together and tra la la, your trendy donut selfie is ready!
5.Your first donut selfie might not be perfect but the more you try it, the better you will get at it.
Have you tried the donut selfie? Tell t2@abp.in
Personally, life with selfies is a brand new life every day. We dress up differently and pose and try to be and look different. A no-selfie life makes me fall out of love with myself — make-up artist Sayanti (right) at Roxy with friend Natalia
Selfies are what make life... say friends Fransesca, Ronita, Shivani, Prathna and Disha at Roxy, as they click a groupfie. “Snapchat and selfies are part of our daily routine. Gosh, we cannot even think of a life without selfie... it’s like a nightmare.”
Selfies are there to capture glorious moments. But yes, obsessive tendencies make it the antithesis of social life. The most disgusting part is when people start taking selfies inside bathrooms, inside gyms, before sleeping and after waking up, selfies with terrible pouts... it goes on. All I want is to see people enjoying without narrowing their eyes or wrinkling their lips! — Namrata Neogi, first year,
English, Loreto College
I clicked selfies even before the term was coined! Life with selfies is fun, you know. It helps drive away your blues. I feel like I can click myself into a better mood. And when you don’t have a photographer around, selfies come to the rescue. A bit of narcissism never hurts. I mean, it isn’t a crime to love yourself! — Jagyoseni Mandal, third year, history, Presidency University.
I love the concept of selfies, because now I don’t have to depend on anyone to click a picture of me anymore. Also, no one is left out of the picture, since the person taking it is also in the frame! — Shruti Gupta (right), third year, comparative literature, Jadavpur University
Text: Asmita Nandy
