It is not out of the ordinary for all of us to be on one of the many social media websites and make our presence felt. While most of us do it to stay connected, there are a few, who see it having a different potential for them. Like this musician from Kolkata. 

Silajit Majumder, is a famous singer, composer from Kolkata. While his talent has many fans in the region, it is his one peculiar habit that has particularly caught our attention. 

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Silajit Majumder is on Facebook like most of us, but while we accept friend requests (mostly out of our own will and for free), Silajit charges money. In case you were planning to befriend him on Facebook, you would have to pay him ₹500. 

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In an interview with MTV India, Silajit says,

I have already sold friend request approvals, and they all come with a 2-month expiry date. In an era of autographs, I used to charge Rs. 10 an autograph. Then things changed and now the trend is to take selfies with stars. I’m making the best of this as well. If I get 20 queries for gigs and five phone calls for movie scripts a day, I have at least 10 people a day asking for my friendship on Facebook. It’s a good business deal.

Is he doing this to shut out people who just want to be associated with him for his fame and not his music? On being prodded a little more, one gets to know the real reason why Mr. Majumder has decided on this novel way of accepting friend requests. 

All the money he collects goes to fund his charitable trust. 

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He says,

All the money that comes in is used to fund our charitable trust, Nouka (boat), which is dedicated to the welfare of underprivileged children of Bengal. We set up the organisation in 2012 and, by god’s grace, we have been able to put a smile on a lot of faces. We intend to keep up the work.

But the friend requests come with an expiry date. You will have to pay him the same amount again, after 2 months, if you wished to stay connected with him on Facebook. 

Ah! Now it all adds up. What a novel way of networking for a cause.