A curious complaint has begun surfacing across Indian social media.
People say they cannot stop thinking about Ravi Kishan. Social media algorithm has so aggressively pummeled the actor-turned-MP’s catchphrases, dance videos and religious singing into the screens of Indians, that it birthed a new sub-genre of memes: people calling Ravi Kishan their sleep paralysis demon.
One meme template popular on Instagram depicts a person lying in bed awake with the caption “Trying to sleep after twelve hours of screen time,” while fading visuals and Kishan’s rendition of ‘Om Namah Shiva’ plays.
The trend started when reporters asked him about the NEET paper leak. Ravi Kishan called it the “NEET akhbar”, sowing the seeds of what has become an online sensation.
Now a five minute scroll on any app of choice features the usual threads of the BJP’s Gorakhpur MP who now ‘lives rent free’ in the minds of those scrolling.
There was the moment outside Parliament when, hurrying inside as reporters asked questions about Ajit Pawar, his flustered attempt to explain his haste with the now-immortal phrase: “Jaldi… the late.”
An older interview has resurfaced in which he referred to “home from work” instead of “work from home.”
Then came an interview in which he was asked to choose between money and fame.
Choosing between paisa (money) and pehchaan (fame), he merged the two words into a third: “Paisaan.” Before viewers had processed the slip, he offered his philosophy: “Money follows, my brother.”
Every expression of his has become a reaction meme. His dancing was edited into unrelated videos. The clips escaped their original contexts and began functioning as internet vocabulary.
Since then, every Ravi Kishan appearance has been treated less like an interview and more like a live sporting event. Viewers tune in partly to hear what he says, but mostly to discover what the next internet catchphrase might be.
There was the dancing, performed with the confidence of someone unconcerned with whether anyone else understood the choreography.
It raises an obvious question. Why Ravi Kishan?
Public figures misspeak. Politicians produce awkward soundbites with astonishing regularity. Actors dance awkwardly every awards season. But most of these moments survive for 48 hours before being replaced by the next viral clip.
Ravi Kishan seems to have escaped that cycle.
Part of the reason is that he possesses a rare algorithmic quality: he is almost impossible to predict.
Public figures are media-trained to within an inch of their lives. Ravi Kishan, by contrast, approaches every conversation like a man discovering his own sentence halfway through saying it.
This internet fame has catapulted Kishan into a modern philosopher of sorts, with many catchphrases coming from podcasts in which he explains healthy living and mindfulness hacks.
The memes create a multiverse of their own, where a comical catchphrase becomes a solution to life’s problems.
Running late? Jaldi… the late.
Confused about success? Money follows, my brother.
Choosing between wealth and recognition? Why not invent a new category?
His advice rarely answers the original question. Perhaps that is why people cannot stop thinking about him.
The internet has always loved personalities who seem larger than life. Ravi Kishan is something else. He feels like a man operating on a frequency just adjacent to everyone else’s, close enough to be familiar but unpredictable enough to remain fascinating.
Millions of Indians are now living with the same condition: they open Instagram expecting entertainment and close it with an inexplicable urge to whisper, “Money follows, my brother.”
