'Power of social media': 79-yr-old roadside plant seller's sales double after viral photo

A post about a 79-year-old man selling medicinal saplings on the roadside in Bengaluru for merger price between Rs 10 to Rs 30 has won collective support on the internet. Occupying a corner outside of a store at Kanakapura road near Sarakki Signal, Revana Siddappa is seen holding an umbrella in one hand for shade and selling a handful of small plant pots arranged on the roadside. The post that has amassed 7.3k likes has moved the internet as users urged the general public to support the elderly man’s business and spread the message across social media to encourage people to buy from him, an initiative that has doubled his income.

As the post was retweeted widely, some good samaritan reached the spot and provided the elderly man with a table, chair, and a large umbrella to arrange his shop on it instead of him sitting on the road concrete in the sun. People are now making appeals to boost the old man’s business by making purchases at his humble shop, as they had flocked to help the Baba Da Dhaba establishment owned by senior citizens that ran out of money due to the shortage of customers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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“I am 79 years old and I used to sell medicinal plants on the roadside of Kanakpura road. Somebody noticed me and took a picture and put it everywhere,” plant seller Revanna Siddappa told ANI. “After that, I got so much help from people. I got a table to keep saplings, a chair, and an umbrella.

"Earlier, I used to sell around five saplings but now the number has doubled,” he added.“I have been selling plants for the last three years. I do not want to take loan money from anyone. I will earn on my own,” the hard-working man said.

Shifting its impact to make a difference

Social media has largely been involved in shifting its impact to positively make a difference in the lives of people and helping small scale domestic businesses to thrive. Similarly, a few days ago, the internet bolstered collective effort to help an 87-year-old street vendor in Mumbai who was spotted selling recycled bags at a nook to his customers from Rs. 40 to Rs. 80. Known as Uncle Joshi, the elderly man, donning spectacles designed ladies’ handbags out of leftover cloth material that he purchased from curtain makers or the discarded synthetic cloth strands from sofa fabrics. After the touché post went viral, people appealed to one another to extend help to elderly people in need by promoting their struggling businesses. 

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