Stand and be counted

'In 2011, protesters didn't just voice their complaints; they changed the world.' That explanation by Time Magazine, for making 'The Protestor' its Person of the Year, amused a number of people for a while. As Dave Thornton put it, for instance: 'The irony is, if you tell people you think that's rubbish, you're a Person of the Year.' Fake Dispatch came up with this: 'Breaking: People protesting the Time Person of the Year cover suddenly find themselves on the cover.' In Keith Urbahn's words, 'Last week, I'm pretty sure I saw Time's Person of the Year selling crystal meth out of his tent.' And a non-cynical comment from Arun Hegde: 'Anna Hazare is undoubtedly the Man of the Year 2011. Our own protestor.'

Cricketer Rahul Dravid delivered the annual Sir Donald Bradman Oration on December 14, and promptly became a trending topic. Diogeneb tweeted: 'Somebody ought to make music with that speech in The Dewarists.' Jitesh Pillaai added: 'Read and re-read the speech. Rahul, you beauty! We need more like you.' According to Ramesh Srivats: 'This time, Dravid is safe. It'll take at least one year for someone to overshadow his Bradman Oration.' And some dissent from Revti Patwardhan: 'Now enough of Dravid's speech. Playing it again and again is making it as boring as a Rahul Gandhi speech!'

So, what do you want for Christmas? The folk on Twitter listed everything from 'tickets to see my favourite singer' and 'all the hate to stop' to 'well moisturised hair', ' a white girlfriend with good credit', 'eternal love and devotion', 'one of those new-fangled 3D televisions' and, inevitably, 'the one and only Justin Bieber.'

From former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar: 'No current cricketer I have known is more aware of the world outside cricket than Dravid. His talk in Canberra, as expected, was brilliant!'