Who To Follow On Twitter? My Top 11 List

My daughter calls me a "social media junkie". As someone who took to Twitter with gusto and has recently made his debut on Facebook Live, I plead guilty. But the fact is the platforms social media gives us are extremely exciting and engaging, allowing for a quick, two-way communication. Of course, these can also lead to bitter abuse, but that's life.

Over the past weekend, we saw the best and worst of Twitter - both as an agency for positivity and a platform for hate. After his breath-taking innings against Australia in the Twenty20 World Cup, Virat Kohli woke up to find his former girlfriend, the actor Anushka Sharma, trolled and abused by the usual cowards on Twitter. Rather than duck, he decided to take the short ball on the chest. He came out with a strong tweet slamming the trolls and defending Anushka Sharma.

When I last checked, the tweet had been re-tweeted 34,000 times. It struck a chord with normal, decent people. Even more, it pointed to how well Virat Kohli understands and uses Twitter and how he leverages his fame to amplify his message. I would say few sportsmen in the world (not just India) use and understand social media as he does.

There are many politicians and celebrities I watch and follow on Twitter. Gradually, one can make out those who tweet themselves and those who have professional handlers and agencies running their accounts. What's been fun on Twitter is to discover unknown names and faces, people I never knew before we met online. Or discovering the astute use of Twitter by someone who may have been an achiever in another arena, but has quickly learnt the art of 140 characters.

Since this is the cricket season, let me give you my Twitter XI. These are not necessarily the most popular or followed people I know on Twitter, but I find them interesting. I have excluded politicians and ministers or corporate and institutional accounts. Having made the list, I also realize I could easily have doubled it and it has hurt to leave out some of my favourites. Nevertheless, here is the list:

1) Gul Panag (@GulPanag): Gul is the reason I am on Twitter. Years ago we were doing a car show together and got chatting. She asked me why I wasn't on Twitter: "Quizmaster Derek not on Twitter?" She was trolling me before I knew what the term meant. I bit the bait and signed up. @derekobrien had been taken by a web developer in Britain (probably a genuine Irishman, rather than me, whose great grandfather was Irish) and so I settled for @quizderek

Why I like Gul's use of Twitter is that she has used it to reinvent herself and expand her public persona from merely an actor to a thinking person, a political activist with serious policy opinions, and yet the ability to talk about a dozen other things - from fitness to mobikes to the fauj - to keep a conversation going even with those who may never share her political views. It's a gift.

2) Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats): Arguably the funniest Indian on Twitter. I've never met him in real life but he makes me laugh every morning or in the middle of a tough day. Sample this from January 2014 (political obsessives will know the context):

"Modi: Yes. I was a chaiwala. I sold sada tea, special tea, masala tea, ginger tea. What did you sell?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: Er ... dynas tea"

3) Ayaz Memon (@cricketwallah): I started off as a sports journalist, as did my illustrious brother Andy. I got to know Ayaz Memon as Andy's friend and an elegant cricket writer. His transition from print to Twitter, without losing his touch for the fine point, has been remarkable.

I must confess it was hard picking Ayaz over Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) who does television and Twitter with as much aplomb.

4) Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar): He's someone who works as a "chief digital evangelist" in Boston and comes up with amazing graphics and data related to the digital and knowledge world. Try this

5) Maria Popova (@brainpicker): A Brooklyn girl, like my wife I may add, but that's all I know about her. Maria is a literature and ideas buff who comes up with the most thought-provoking tweets that get you thinking just that much enough. A trivia buff's dream account. For example

6)  and 7) Two television journalists who are among the most trolled individuals on the Internet, constantly attacked by the right: Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) and Barkha Dutt (@BDUTT).
They are similar yet different. Rajdeep's sheer range - from politics to music to cricket - continues to astonish me and his tweets represent that diversity and breadth. Barkha is a consummate news hound, desperate to get the reporter's bite into a story. She also engages with her critics, and this is a rare quality in a celeb journalist, though I feel she sometimes wastes her time defending herself to unredeemable (and unknown) handles.

Another confession: If I could allow myself two more television anchors, these would be Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) and Sunetra Choudhury (@sunetrac). They're the stars of the next generation.

8) Ashok Malik @malikashok. The final journalist on the list. Like me, an old Kolkatan and like numbers 6 and 7, a Padma Shri Awardee (freshly-minted). I follow Ashok as a thoughtful, sensible voice from the right, one not given to hysterics and who has retained his balance. Even if we often disagree.

9) Pope Francis @Pontifex. I follow the Pope, in real life and on Twitter. I'm a practising Catholic, not too orthodox, but serious enough to go for Mass every Sunday. I admire the Pope for the fresh thinking and reform he has brought to the Church. His use of Twitter is informative and wise without being preachy, effective without over-tweeting.

10) Gunjan Chakrabarty @Gunjan47. A home-maker who divides her time between Kolkata and Pune, I met Gunjan for the first time only recently. On Twitter we've been old friends. I am particularly attentive to her tweets related to Kolkata. She is the everywoman who seems to capture the pulse of the city and what it's thinking. My one-woman sounding board.

11) Sonal Dabral @agracadabra. My career before I set up my company was in advertising and Sonal, an ad guy, helps me relive those years. He keeps me (and other Twitter followers) updated on news and trends in the ad world, and laces his tweets with humour and whacko puns that come so easily to a copywriter and are so reminiscent of the edge and ease (two contradictory terms, I know) in an ad agency. I leave you with this:

"My momma always said, 'Life was like a South Indian thali. You lose some, you payasam.'"

Have a good week, on or off Twitter!

Derek O'Brien is leader, Parliamentary party Trinamool Congress (RS), and Chief National spokesperson of the party.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.