Rishi's friends didn’t think twice before sharing the meme that featured him on their fan pages and personal feeds. In it, Rishi could be seen looking at the CCTV camera—his eyes and cheeks widening into a devilish-seeming smile. That was all. The internet jumped on it.
He almost became a minor celebrity for a news cycle. Captions ranging from "When you don't do your homework but attend your teacher's private tuition" to "What's my favourite hobby? Saying cheese to CCTV" made the rounds. You should’ve seen Rishi during that time—he became self-conscious and almost paranoid, thinking all eyes were on him when he stepped outside. It’s true that he enjoyed it initially, when just his friends shared the meme. As it moved beyond his orbit, he mistook it for popularity. Little did he know: the trolls were ruthless and fun-loving. He had never gone through such a confusing and ambivalent experience in his 33 years on Earth.
It all started with an investigation into a case of stolen copper wires from the AC units in Rishi's apartment complex. The case was taken up by Sub-inspector Sebastian, who worked at the nearby police station. Rishi and Sebastian had attended the same university. While Rishi stepped into digital marketing, Sebastian ended up in the police department after some stints in odd jobs that never quite fulfilled him.
Sebastian and a constable began the investigation, combing through hours of CCTV footage from the apartment. Once they narrowed down the approximate date of the theft, they examined every inch of the frame with hawk-like precision.
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5/5/23, 10:57 PM
A delivery executive in an 'ASAP Foods' uniform is seen carrying a food package suitable for two. He looks around, parks his bike near the entrance of the block, and heads toward the elevator.
5/5/23, 11:33 PM
The same delivery executive returns empty-handed and is in no rush to start his bike.
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This was the first red flag for Sebastian. The delivery executive’s calm demeanor didn’t really match the “quick delivery” ethos of his company. Perhaps it was his last delivery of the night. But Sebastian wasn’t ready to let it go. Like every good cop, suspicion was his compass. As he continued scanning the next day’s footage, he spotted another familiar face in the parking lot footage.
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5/6/23, 10:06 PM
A man in a sandal-colored shirt walks slowly, spinning keys on his index finger. He heads toward the entrance and steps into the elevator.
Then—Rishi enters the frame. He slows his pace, looks directly into the camera, and flashes his now-famous smile.
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It wasn’t a comic relief for Sebastian. He knew Rishi lived in the apartment—they’d spoken when Sebastian arrived—but being there in the footage so close to the time of the suspected theft was suspicious. Sebastian snapped some pictures of Rishi from the footage and sent them to him with a message: “Is this some prank?”
The theft had been reported to the station on May 10. Sebastian initially believed it happened just a day or two before, as residents usually noticed such things quickly. But there was no footage of the suspect returning on May 6, and Sebastian confirmed he wasn’t a resident. Most likely, the man had gone to the terrace, dismantled the AC compressors, and escaped through the backyard, which led to the lakeside. The delivery guy, Sebastian suspected, was his accomplice. He had clearly avoided most of the cameras.
It took a curious middle-aged resident on his morning terrace walk to notice something wrong with the ACs. All belonged to residents of the fifth floor—just below the terrace. He posted it on their apartment’s WhatsApp group, and from there, the story blew up. But what took the internet by storm was the meme of Rishi smiling into the CCTV camera. Sebastian, it seemed, had forwarded those pictures to a few friends, and they circulated it widely through their online circles.
It wasn’t a secret that Rishi liked to smile at CCTV cameras. But only his close friends and family knew the reason.
"Because I like to. If it’s going to capture me anyway, let it capture me smiling. People say there’s a privacy-security tradeoff with surveillance. That doesn’t mean we have to walk around looking serious and conscious. Treat it like a selfie booth, if you can. You’re not a criminal," he’d say.
But strangers began recognizing him in public. Trolls accused him of being too self-important, giving their own spin to his smile. About two months after the meme first went viral, Rishi got an invitation from Know Your Meme to appear in an interview and share the story behind his smile. The production team flew to India and arranged the shoot in a private studio. Rishi was prepped and ready. They shot for about twenty minutes, and Rishi breezed through it. After all, he was just riding his hobby horse.
As they wrapped, the DOP Jason’s five-year-old daughter came running up to Rishi.
“I know you! You’re the smiling man!”
“Well, I now know this smiling little doll,” Rishi replied, endearingly.
Jason and his crew planned to stay in Chennai for a week to explore the city. He asked Rishi for recommendations for a jewellery shop—he wanted to get something for his daughter’s birthday. Rishi suggested Signara, a legacy store that also offered custom designs. Unfortunately, Jason didn’t have time for a custom piece, but he decided to check out the ready-made collection.
It was only after getting home that something clicked for Rishi. A memory stirred.
When did I really start this smile-at-the-camera thing? Am I even being honest with myself?
He had lost many things in life—to thieves, to friends, to colleagues, and to life in general. One of them was a gold ring—a gift from his then-girlfriend Kavya. It had slipped off his hand while they were moving into their new flat in the same complex. He combed through hours of CCTV footage until he spotted the moment someone picked it up—probably a cleaner employed by one of the residents. He filed a complaint, but nothing came of it. Kavya was furious. Though they eventually married and she forgave him, Rishi carried the guilt like a scar.
One day, standing at a grocery store, he randomly stopped near a CCTV camera—and smiled.
It felt good. It was a smile of helplessness.
What good did these cameras do? Everything was captured, yet nothing was recovered.
From then on, every time he noticed a CCTV camera, he smiled. It became his own strange way of reclaiming power, of trying to look past pain and loss, of pretending everything was okay.
He called Jason immediately. “Sorry, Jason. We’ll have to skip uploading my interview.”
“What happened?”
“I’m a liar,” Rishi said. “I might be meme-friendly, but I’m definitely not a friend to myself.”
He had decided to write his story as a memoir—not the story of his internet fame, but the real one. The one where he fooled himself and others.
Thankfully, Jason was willing to wait until Rishi completed the book.
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