Slice of life: ‘Memes can bring smile, don’t use them to spread hate’

BG Raghavendran (26), Meme creator

While everyone was watching football or wrestling, I was watching the latest Vadivelu or Santhanam comedies and films. I love them. When my friends and I get together, all we do is repeat their dialogues. It can get a little overwhelming for outsiders. I set up my Facebook page centred on memes, Memeism, in 2014. I run it with six friends, all Engineering graduates. They made memes while studying to cope. Our page gained a lot of popularity during the 2015 cricket World Cup. We used to put up daily memes then. The art is to find the right quote and the right picture so that it relates to people. I don’t find it very difficult because it is almost like second nature to me. But to make memes you need to have a tendency for humour and a flow. I use them even at my work at an IT company. There would be some new process that needs to be followed, so I’d just mesh it into memes and share it with my colleagues, and they would all understand and appreciates it. It also makes work a little less straining, and more fun, this way. Memes are an important form of communication. When used properly, they are a chance to reach out to people and make them smile. But some people can spread hate, and that is always wrong. For me, memes are everything. I say that I live and breathe memes. ‘Life is a meme, so live it to your fullest’ – that’s my motto.