The protest was fun – he played ludo, Uno, and pakdam-pakdai (tag) with other protesters on the road, Abhinav said. “We were doing so much masti, and I wanted to capture that in my reels.”The success of last week’s protest owed as much to GenZ’s determination to fight it out on the streets as to the high spirits, wit, and chutzpah that they demonstrated online. The battle of narratives, attention spans, and laughs was decisively won on Instagram, and one of those who led the charge was Abhinav Bisht.“Mauj masti rukni nahi chaiye (the fun must not stop)” is not just his Insta bio, it is also the motto of his 19-year-old life, the floppy-haired young man told The Indian Express.Abhinav’s reel, made to ‘Subway Surfers’ audio, of running with a crowd with police chasing behind, had someone commenting, “Bhaag Genzilkha Bhaag”. Another one on a relationship with the police, made to ‘Who’s most likely to’ audio, got 1.2 million likes.Before Abhinav posted his protest reels, his Insta handle, @issac1rl, had 2,450 followers. On Tuesday evening, the number stood at 766k. His supportive parents decided to celebrate each milestone from 10k to 700k, so “I cut a cake every day for five days,” he said.The young influencer, who is originally from Garhwal, Uttarakhand, started creating content a year and a half ago. “I had worked in a call centre for three months and saved up for a computer to edit videos and live-stream,” he said.The protest meant a lot for him – “Accountability is very important because the victims [of the paper leaks] were also students like me.” He also came away from his days at Jantar Mantar with “20-30 new creator friends”, and “I am now close to all of them”.Abhinav posted his first reel on July 21. He had gone to the protest without telling his parents – despite the pride in their son, they had seen the July 20 lathicharge, and were worried for his safety. “But after seeing the response my content got, they didn’t stop me again,” he said.Story continues below this adThe protest was fun – he played ludo, Uno, and pakdam-pakdai (tag) with other protesters on the road, Abhinav said. “We were doing so much masti, and I wanted to capture that in my reels.”He said he brought out old trends and made them relevant to the protest – like vibing with fellow creators to an upbeat remix of Kishore Kumar’s Mere mehboob qayamat hogi. “My reels became so viral that even police officers recognised me. Some would smile, though some frowned. I was scared they would detain me,” Abhinav said.After his account was suspended two days ago, he could not sleep at night, Abhinav said. “I think it was due to Instagram’s weak security. I hired an agency, and they helped me retrieve my account,” he said.