‘Aura’ Story, Horror Story
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Bachi Karkaria, writing in her long-running Times of India column “Erratica,” offers a sardonic critique of “aura farming”—Gen Z’s meticulous curation of clothes, quotes, company, dance moves, and even “looks” (whether rizz, biz, or “resting bitch”) for the “Holy Gain of online attention.” Learning about this phenomenon from the Sunday Times of India, she draws parallels to her own generation’s understanding of cultivating personal presence, noting that while previous eras “cultivated” aura like grapes, Gen Z “farms” it like bajra. Karkaria acknowledges complicity, having founded Bombay Times which spawned the original “Page Three People” culture that made even sane individuals swap genuine achievement for celebrity status—a phenomenon accelerated by the selfie’s emergence as the “Great Enabler.”
The column traces a continuum from fake news to faked people, observing that political and personal events have become “buffet salads—carefully arranged only for maximum eye appeal and image amplification.” Where previous generations attended curated exhibitions, contemporary “aura farming” curates people for exhibition—not just body parts but entire personas manufactured for consumption. Karkaria invokes Paromita Vohra’s concept of the “Instagram Boyfriend” (kept solely to optimize the partner’s social media presence) and references Sting’s surveillance lyrics now reinterpreted: every move designed for maximum “lit Aura Effect.” The piece concludes darkly, suggesting that with cameras functioning as “neo-Creator” and bots staging a “warm-bloodless coup,” even God might worry about displacement in an era where authenticity itself has become performance art.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Meticulous Curation for Clicks
Gen Z meticulously curates every aspect—clothes, quotes, company, dance moves, facial expressions—transforming themselves into clickbait for online attention rather than authentic selves.
Page Three Origins
Karkaria traces complicity to founding Bombay Times, spawning Page Three People culture that made individuals swap genuine fame for “celebrittle” status among wannabes.
Selfie as Great Enabler
The selfie technology fanned celebrity obsession into wildfire, evolving into Instagram Boyfriend phenomenon—partners kept solely to curate optimal social media shots.
From Fake News to Faked People
The progression from misinformation to manufactured personas was inevitable; political and personal events arranged like buffet salads for maximum visual appeal and amplification.
Curating People for Exhibition
Reversal of traditional culture: instead of attending curated exhibitions, aura farming curates entire personas—not just body parts but complete identities—for public display.
Camera as Neo-Creator
With cameras functioning as new creators of identity and bots staging “warm-bloodless coups,” even divine authority might worry about displacement in manufactured reality.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Manufactured Identity Supplants Authenticity
Karkaria’s central argument is that “aura farming” represents a dystopian endpoint in celebrity culture’s evolution—where Gen Z has internalized and perfected the performance of identity for digital consumption, transforming authentic self-presentation into strategic clickbait optimization. She traces a direct lineage from her own complicity in founding Page Three culture through the selfie revolution to contemporary Instagram Boyfriends, demonstrating how what began as documenting celebrity has metastasized into manufacturing it. The horror lies not in Gen Z’s behavior per se but in recognizing it as the logical conclusion of trends her generation initiated: the progression from fake news to faked people, from attending curated exhibitions to becoming curated exhibitions. Her dystopian finale—cameras as neo-Creators, bots staging coups—suggests technology hasn’t just enabled this shift but fundamentally replaced authentic human identity creation.
Purpose
Sardonic Cultural Critique With Generational Self-Awareness
Karkaria writes to critique Gen Z’s aura farming obsession while acknowledging her generation’s complicity in creating the conditions that produced it. Her purpose is simultaneously satirical and confessional—mocking contemporary narcissism (“Does this mean instead of the best version of yourself, you want to become the best ‘clickbait’?”) while accepting responsibility through phrases like “Mea culpa” and acknowledging “we only started the fire.” This dual stance—elder critic who recognizes her own culpability—gives the piece moral complexity beyond simple generational finger-wagging. The column functions as cultural diagnosis, tracing pathology from symptoms (aura farming) back through transmission vectors (selfies, Page Three) to origins (celebrity worship), ultimately serving as cautionary tale about unintended consequences when media innovations meet human vanity.
Structure
Discovery → Historical Complicity → Escalation → Dystopian Conclusion
The column opens with Karkaria learning about “aura farming” from STOI, establishing her position as generational outsider encountering alien terminology. She immediately contextualizes by noting her era understood aura cultivation differently—grapes versus bajra farming—before acknowledging complicity through founding Bombay Times and Page Three culture. The middle section traces escalation: celebrity worship enabled by selfies, Instagram Boyfriends curating partners, manufactured “natural looks” requiring labor, celebrities orchestrating their own paparazzi. Karkaria then identifies the inversion—from attending curated exhibitions to becoming curated exhibitions—before culminating in the dystopian vision of cameras as neo-Creators and bot coups. This structure moves from bemused observation through self-implication to existential anxiety, mirroring her recognition that what seemed harmless cultural documentation has evolved into identity replacement.
Tone
Witty, Self-Deprecating & Increasingly Ominous
Karkaria employs sharp wit throughout—”celebrittle thanks to every Tony, Moni and Wannabe,” the Instagram Boyfriend as “loser kept only to ‘curate’ the babe’s best shot”—while maintaining self-aware humor about her own generation (“my pre-pre-GenZ world”). The tone shifts from amused bewilderment (“Really? Wow!”) through rueful confession (“Mea culpa”) to darkening satire as implications deepen. Cultural references—Orwell’s Big Brother reinterpreted, Sting’s surveillance lyrics repurposed, buffet salad metaphors—add intellectual texture while maintaining accessibility. The conclusion turns genuinely ominous: “With camera as neo-Creator, should God worry?” elevates critique from social commentary to existential concern. This tonal progression—from light mockery to philosophical dread—mirrors her recognition that what appears absurd (aura farming) actually represents profound cultural transformation where authentic identity has been technologically displaced.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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With extreme care, precision, and attention to detail; showing painstaking thoroughness in every aspect of execution.
“…your clothes, quotes, company you keep and vice versa, dance moves, your ‘look’ whether rizz, biz or even ‘resting bitch’, all have to be meticulously ‘curated’…”
Having knowledge of events before they happen; showing remarkable foresight that later proves accurate, often unintentionally prophetic.
“Sting was unintendedly prescient. ‘Every move you make, every breath you take’ will be designed for ‘lit’ Aura Effect.”
Excessive self-love, self-centeredness, or preoccupation with one’s own appearance and importance; named after the Greek myth of Narcissus.
“…should I don my ash-toned designer sackcloth to atone for this ultra-narcissism?”
Assigned or delegated to perform a specific task or duty; appointed to act on behalf of another or carry out designated responsibilities.
“…this OCD aura-enhancement has now been deputed to The Instagram Boyfriend, a loser kept only to ‘curate’ the babe’s best shot at ‘Likes’…”
With great effort and difficulty; in a manner requiring considerable time, care, and painstaking work to achieve the desired result.
“Even the ‘natural look’ is a put-on, laboriously.”
The act of increasing volume, extent, or significance; magnification or expansion beyond original scale, often for enhanced effect or reach.
“Political/personal events have become like buffet salads – carefully arranged only for maximum eye appeal and image amplification.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, Karkaria acknowledges personal responsibility for contributing to the celebrity culture that enabled contemporary aura farming.
2What does Karkaria mean by stating that “even the ‘natural look’ is a put-on, laboriously”?
3Which sentence best captures the cultural inversion Karkaria identifies between past and present?
4Evaluate these statements about technology’s role in identity construction according to the article:
The selfie is identified as the “Great Enabler” that amplified celebrity culture into widespread obsession.
Karkaria views the Instagram Boyfriend phenomenon positively as healthy relationship collaboration supporting partners’ aspirations.
The article suggests cameras have become “neo-Creators” potentially displacing traditional sources of identity creation including divine authority.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about why Karkaria titles this piece “‘Aura’ story, horror story”?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Aura farming is Gen Z’s meticulous curation of every aspect of personal presentation—clothes, quotes, company, dance moves, facial expressions (whether “rizz, biz or even ‘resting bitch'”)—all for the “Holy Gain of online attention.” It represents transforming oneself into optimized clickbait rather than presenting authentic identity. Everything becomes calculated performance designed to maximize “likes” and online engagement, with even supposedly natural appearances requiring laborious construction. The term farming (versus cultivating) suggests industrial-scale production of manufactured personas for digital consumption.
Karkaria acknowledges founding Bombay Times, which spawned original “Page Three People” culture that made even sane individuals swap genuine fame for celebrity status. She accepts responsibility (“Mea culpa”) for creating conditions enabling ultra-narcissism, noting P3 culture reduced celebrity to “celebrittle thanks to every Tony, Moni and Wannabe.” However, she distinguishes initiation from amplification: “we only started the fire. It was fanned wild by that Great Enabler, the Selfie.” Page Three documented existing celebrities; aura farming democratized and industrialized the process, allowing everyone to manufacture celebrity personas through meticulous digital self-curation.
Citing Paromita Vohra, Karkaria describes the Instagram Boyfriend as “a loser kept only to ‘curate’ the babe’s best shot at ‘Likes’ (nee fame)”—representing how aura-enhancement obsession has been outsourced to romantic partners. This phenomenon illustrates several themes: relationships subordinated to image optimization, other humans reduced to technical support roles for manufactured personas, and the extent to which every aspect of life becomes instrumentalized for online attention. The Instagram Boyfriend epitomizes how authentic human connections are repurposed as infrastructure for digital identity construction, with intimacy displaced by curation services.
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This is an Advanced-level article requiring sophisticated cultural literacy and ability to track densely packed satirical commentary. Readers must understand Gen Z slang (“rizz,” “biz,” “resting bitch”), grasp cultural references (Orwell’s Big Brother, Sting lyrics, buffet salad metaphors), and follow rapid tonal shifts from wit through confession to dystopian anxiety. The piece demands recognizing how Karkaria acknowledges complicity while critiquing outcomes, understanding the progression from fake news to faked people, and grasping existential implications of cameras as “neo-Creators.” Success requires appreciating satirical column conventions, recognizing generational self-awareness distinguishes this from simple criticism, and synthesizing cultural critique with philosophical concern about authenticity’s technological displacement.
The conclusion escalates from social critique to existential anxiety: cameras don’t just record identity but create it, while bots represent non-human entities displacing human agency through “warm-bloodless coup.” Asking “should God worry?” suggests technology has usurped traditional sources of identity creation and meaning-making. This isn’t hyperbole but recognizing aura farming’s logical endpoint—when entire personas are curated for cameras, and artificial intelligence generates content indistinguishable from human production, questions arise about what remains authentically human. The dystopian finale transforms what appears as generational critique into philosophical concern about technology fundamentally altering human self-conception and agency.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
