For your guests, a no-selfie protocol

We know how at dinners, parties and gatherings, there’s a breed of guests who swoop on to VIPs, flip out their phones and take selfies before anyone can say, ‘Well, actually….’ Ask Naseeruddin Shah, who was livid after bumptious visitors at Delhi airport last week tried to click selfies with him. Prefixing their invasion of private space with ‘I hope you don’t mind’ and other such exactly opposite-meaning inanities, these picture-poachers ‘veni, vidi, selfie’, rum-punched with satisfaction at the very thought of adding another ‘head’ to their social media wall. What’s downright horrendous is when such trespassive-aggressive selfie-taking inevitably metastasises to ‘crowdies’. Enter the ‘No-Selfie Protocol’. This memo with the invitation to be sent to guests before a gathering will nix any urge to pounce on VIPs like perfidious paparazzi:

‘Dear guest, to ensure you don’t come across as socially clueless, we advise you to not take selfies of/with any other guest barring yourself, keeping the spirit of self in ‘selfie’ intact. As you must be well aware, taking a random photo with a VIP does not send out the message that one is acquainted with, or familiar to, any targeted special guest. Instagram or Facebook posts of such selfies only expose the selfie- taker’s crass notion that clicking oneself with someone famous makes oneself ‘famous’. You, dear guest, obviously do not fall into such a category. Look forward to your presence.’