As I was scouring through my photo roll searching for my latest DP, a picture happened to catch my eye.
It had inadvertently reached my album through the whatsapp downloads. It screamed of a national pride "Arvind Kejriwal as Time magazine's person of the year". I did feel proud since the AAP has been my only hope this Lok Sabha elections. But alas. This feeling was short lived.
It had inadvertently reached my album through the whatsapp downloads. It screamed of a national pride "Arvind Kejriwal as Time magazine's person of the year". I did feel proud since the AAP has been my only hope this Lok Sabha elections. But alas. This feeling was short lived.
I somehow have a penchant for not easily accepting so called facts.
My search through the Time magazine links revealed the true facts.
Time has it's annual feature where it declares the most influential person of the year. Though it is preceded by an online opinion poll, the final decision is a jury based nomination. Our favorite AK (definitely not referring to Aamir Khan), has for sure topped the opinion poll with a big margin. This is no mean achievement. He thus found his way to the Time 100, which is the top 100 list of most influential people of the year declared on April 24, 2014.
However, Beyonce Knowles, found herself on the US cover and Robert Redford, Jason Collins and Mary Barra on its international covers.
So, Mahatma Gandhi, back in 1930, still remains the only Indian to feature as the Time -person of the year, till date.
This reminded me of a similar hoax message that was doing the rounds few months back.
When India Today wrote to the UNESCO asking for details and clarifications regarding this 'announcement', Sue Williams (Chief, Editorial, Press Relations and Unesco Courier, Bureau of Public Information, Unesco) wrote back that no such award has been announced.
So why is this elaborate hoax?
If you would have clicked on any of the images,
you would have been directed to the registration page of a yahoo groups site called 'MumbaiHangOut'.
Vested interests ??
Sure, these are achievements you would have thought. But why have there been no official announcements or any celebrations? After all it was a UNESCO or TIME award, and not a joke.
But that is exactly what these are. Rather imprudent jokes, playing with the sentiment of millions of Indians.
Well written. Why do we 'indians' need 'times magazine' or 'unesco' to realise the worth of a person or thing? Why can't 'we' judge on our own?
ReplyDeleteComment on Dr. Fatema's comment: We cannot judge our ownselves or we would be thought of as blowing our own trumpets. At the same time, the fetish for international recognition is not unique to just India. All Asian, third world, and African countries want to be seen by the mighty US of A in a good light. This is the reason why people claim more credit for a US MBA than an Indian one, a M.S. from the US than an M.D. from India, a Knighthood from the Queen than a Padma Vibhushan etc. from India, etc.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, it is our own comfort with our achievements that gives us inner happiness, whether or not others recognise our effort. But, to be honest, that requires a lot of mental development and is sure not easy.
Taher
Sad but true.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that we indians do carried away by such statements...until we r not sure we shouldnt beleive in such rumours..
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