One of my colleagues in my previous office dragged me into a Facebook group named Malabaris. The word meaning of Malabaris is the people of Malabar. However, the group was not confined for ‘Malabaris’. People from all the corners of Kerala joined the group. Actually a few districts of North Kerala is known as Malabar. This was a British version of referring a district in Kerala named Malappuram.
Although Malabar comprises of many districts, all of them are identical in many aspects. The natives of these areas are famous for their hospitality. Since you will find the best foodies in these districts of Kerala, they are also ready to prepare and serve yummy dishes to their guests. There are many other features like admiration to all kinds of music, art forms and sports. Most of the places in Malabar are still developing and so there is innocence in the behavior of the natives. Do I sound like boasting? Well, come to Malabar once and you’ll realize I am not hyping too much.
Facebook groups have created a wild sensation among the users. Apart from being a meeting place of people of same interest, it has also helped in formation of donation camps and venues for other social activities. Malabaris aims at gathering people who like fun and friendship. When I joined, all I did in the group was to paste the links of my new blog posts. I should say I remained as an inactive member in Malabaris for more than one year with the exception of posting my blog updates.
Sooner the admins of the group invited me for a chat with the group. That segment helped me to interact with most of the active members. The question and answer session went for about 2-3 days. It was at that time I checked more about the group. Within a few days, admins asked me if I can lead the group with them. As the leaders at that time was highly active, I thought even if I’m the admin it will be just a namesake job. But I was completely mistaken. Everyone had their own roles to do without any delay for the progress of the group.
In a few months, the group reached the one lakh membership mark. This mark is rare among Malayalam groups. The whole thing of controlling such a group is not a simple task. There will be issues and disputes every day. Whenever a problem happens, members will come to admins for help. We have to sort out the problems patiently. I learned the skill of leadership from this group.
I am not sure how many more days will I be able to lead the group with other admins. Out of stress, I’d even tried to quit the admin post and membership from the group many times. Yet, the care and affection of the group members helped me to rethink about my decision and get back to the track. For me to remain as a fine performer in a group with one lakh (100 thousand) members, I must thank other fellow admins and members who have supported me.
