(This story originally appeared in on Dec 17, 2017)

A 58-year-old man with 32 failed businesses behind him is hardly the shining example of leadership. But through his abortive attempts at selling paints, insurance, video cassettes, and even books, T S Madaan discovered he had a gift for the gab. ‘’I was always able to talk to people and influence them without trying too hard,’’ he says.With homilies like ‘Dress for success’ and ‘Network with heart’, Madaan has become one of the top 10 You-Tube creators for 2017 with 2.5 million subscribers. He dishes out advice — in Punjabi-peppered Hindi — on how to close a sale, how to snap up rich clients, and how to adopt the habits of the rich and successful. In short, how to take the leap from an “aam aadmi to a khas aadmi”.Madaan is just one of the many who may have hit the grey-zone in age, but are ruling a medium that is viewed largely by the young. He’s not alone. Addressing audiences as ‘’sons and daughters’’, if Madaan reminds you of the neighbourhood Uncleji, Nisha Madhulika is distinctively maternal.Loathing the commute from Noida to Delhi, Madhulika quit the family business in 2008. But with two grown-up sons and plenty of time on her hands, she started a food blog which transformed into a YouTube channel in 2011.Initially, she would wake up at 4 am so her husband could shoot the videos before heading off to work. Now, she hires a team of four, including a video editor and researchers. A spare bedroom has been converted into a kitchen set. At 58, Madhulika’s North Indian vegetarian food recipes have 3.1 million subscribers with viewers thanking her for saving their marriages. “I get teary-eyed sometimes when I read how some girls did not know how to cook, but picked up the skill by watching my videos. I even have children as young as 12 trying out my recipes,’’ she says.But Madaan and Madhulika might seem like teenagers when compared to Mastanamma , who at 106, is the oldest YouTuber in the world. Her videos making emu egg fry, finger chips and watermelon chicken in her village of Gudivada, in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district, are regularly shared across the world.Mastanamma had no idea her grandson, K Laxman and his friend Srinath Reddy, both trained video editors, were filming her at first. A holiday to their village last year turned into a million dollar idea. “We were already running an online food channel when it occurred to us to capture the traditional methods of cooking used by Mastanamma,’’ says the Hyderabad-based Reddy. Soon after the video of a toothless Mastanamma making watermelon chicken was uploaded, it went viral.Initially, Mastanamma, or granny as she is known, remained blissfully unaware of the impact her cooking had. “She started getting gifts from UK and Pakistan and visitors from the US. Then she realised she had become famous,” says Reddy. Mastanamma is now wellversed with Google and YouTube.The duo returns to the village every month to shoot a couple of recipes a day. Unlettered Mastanamma, who was married at 11, is now helping her family rake in the big bucks. “The success of older YouTubers only goes to prove that age is not a barrier if you are a creator,” says Satya Raghavan, entertainment head, YouTube India . “To be a successful YouTuber you need to either be very good at what you do, or passionate and consistent.”