Making sense of the good, bad and often strange trending topics online
Making sense of the good, bad and often strange trending topics onlineDelhi University's Shri Ram College of Commerce was an unusual trending topic. This wasn't a complete surprise, considering its 100% firstu00a0cut-off for non-commerce aspirants to its BCom (H) programme had already evoked strong reactions. People like Kashif Haque were angry.
He tweeted: 'Sources tell me the cut-off next year will be 105%, with extra marks awarded for neatness and handwriting.' Someone using the handle Rofl Indian added: 'The moon will be admitted to SRCC tonight, having achieved 100% cut-off.' Apoorva Maheshwari had a saner comment: 'SRCC is trending for the ridiculous cut-off, not decades of academic excellence. Sigh.' And Quizmaster Derek O'Brien had a message for the college principal: 'I just saw you on TV tonight, sir. With all due respect, on the Inspiration Quotient, you did not even score 45%.'
Ten years after
It's been a decade since Aamir Khan released a film based on his dubious version of cricket. Naturally, comments on Lagaan clogged timelines. In Vijit Vengsarkar's words, 'I see Lagaan trending out of nowhere: One more reason to stop playing cricket, and one more reason to stop looking at trends.' A certain Andy Dufresne pointed out: 'We are a country that can watch Lagaan for 224 minutes, but call a brilliant 142-minute Shawshank Redemption too long.'
Power to the people
The hashtag 'My Superpower Would Be ufffd' yielded all kinds of responses from the clich ufffdd ('to read people's minds') to the completely inane ('to feed and shelter all the hungry children in the world'). The only one that appealed to me was this: 'To be able to listen to the radio without killing myself after.'
The last wordWriter Chetan Bhagat has insights many of us don't. Consider this: 'If I offer to help fix the education system, I will be labelled a) publicity seeker, b) politically motivated, c) RSS agent. Hence, sit. Watch.'
