Instagram's prime advice giver, Poonam Sapra

Poonam Sapra or Mother With Sign offered old-school wisdom on Instagram

Poonam Sapra, 64
Mother With Sign, Instagram positivity influencer

The New York-based account, @dudewithsign may be cool, but Indians got something better this year. We got a calm, pleasant @motherwithsign, aka Poonam Sapra, who reminded us of the wisdom we have always been aware of, but have often ignored. Sapra's son, Pranav, a Delhi-based writer, came up with the idea after another day of being nagged by his mom during the lockdown.

"She would always be saying, drink more water, eat more veggies. So, while my first response was, 'please, yaar [stop!]', I figured I could direct this energy elsewhere, and suggested starting an account for her," he says.

Sapra and her son, Pranav, who helps her with the account

Sapra says she agreed because it was something fun that she and her son could do together.

While some boards carried plain, sound advice - "Sure, take a picture of your food but remember to wash your hands before you eat" - there were enough and more signs that sang a self-care and positivity tune: "Mask your face, not your feelings." Once, she held up the number of COVID-19 patients across the world who had recovered so far.

As Pranav says, "After a few posts, we realised this was working, and people actually liked reading this mom advice. My mother is not just nagging, she is also a very positive person, and that comes across in what we put up."

For Sapra, who now has over 1.5 lakh followers, it was important that young people were reading this. "The youth can be great, if they get the right advice at the right time. Some things need to be said again and again. Like sit straight, or have more water - we all know this but we forget," she says. Both mother and son say that they also used the account to calm themselves down during the pandemic, and it was a sort of a self-talk system, that ended up helping others too. Sapra says, "These were things we wanted to tell ourselves as well. Such as, take things one day at the time. Or, we will get through this together. I think we all needed support. We are now almost at the end of the tunnel, so we should be focused on the good. It's all going to work out."