DailyO Hall of Fame - An August Month
1. Omnipresent Radhika
We were not sure whether Radhika Apte is apt for this honour or not.
But then, Netflix India convinced us that she is and only she is.
She has been Netflix India's favourite non-fictional character, featured in all its India originals: Lust Stories, Sacred Games and Ghoul.
Whether the poster girl of anti-nepotism in Bollywood deserved such fanboyism from Netflix might be a bigger debate. But, later.
Now, we savour each of the Radhika Apte memes, as much as Netflix India does. What could have we done without Radhika Apte?
2. The Many Facets of Rahul Gandhi
The 48-year-old “youthful” leader, the Prince Charming of the Indian National Congress and the sharpest thorn (though many argue he isn’t properly whetted) in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s side, Rahul Gandhi, is a multi-faceted man. He speaks with an oxymoronic mixture of eloquence and crude simplicity.
He hugs and winks and raises a stink, every time the Bharatiya Janata Party’s armour has a chink. His potential, alas, has a huge snag on the way. His reputation for being less-than-serious always gets in the way. What is more unfortunate, still, is his self-goal, or at least that of the party whose wheel he steers. And thus we end up seeing not a leader who can take the party (and, perhaps, the country), forward; but a meme of his potential to turn left, right, up and down; not politically, rather physically.
A loss to his “street-cred” it may be, but his many facets (just the literal ones) have brought great joy to all in these troubling times.
3. Vivek Agnihotri
It doesn’t take much to get one’s fifteen minutes of fame, though for some almost 830 minutes of mediocre filmmaking is just not enough. For them, the only solution that remains, perhaps, is to assume the role of agent provocateur. And some, even failing to manage the same — for provocation requires a certain amount of talent with words — assume the ultimate role of ideologues. Such a role seldom requires vivek; all it takes is getting lucky once. The internet, nowadays, does the rest.
Vivek Agnihotri’s fifteen minutes of fame have arrived in EMIs, of course, over the years.
A few seconds of outrage here and there have segued into the normalisation of one of his so-called “inventions”. His phrase of choice — the "Urban Naxal" — has now found legitimacy in police documents and political speak. And that is why he deserves a worthy mention in our Hall of Fame.
His story teaches us that it is perseverance (and pandering to the right wing) that guarantees fame and success. And that is worth celebrating.
4. Faceless Kiki
Love is blind. We didn't believe in that cliche ever.
But then, Kiki happened to us.
Our collective love for a faceless Kiki has been over the top, sometimes over the car also. This month, we saw thousands of #KikiChallenge memes. There were other thousands of #KikiChallengeFails as well. The frenzy sent law and order into a tizzy. But like all internet fads, we bade farewell to Kiki this month.
Last checked, Kiki loves us back and is happy to ride this wall of fame.
5. The old Rs 500 Note
Many claim that all deaths are unfair. That may be so.
But some deaths are more unfair than others.
And one of those is that of the Rs 500 note of ye olde days from before November 8, 2016. The currency note was murdered by bad policy and replaced by an “updated” version that was no different, save in size and looks. For long, the memory of the note was kept alive by a few; either those critical of the murderous policy, or those too lazy to have exchanged the corpse of this government bill for the new one. Few wept for it, fewer still, wept for its older sibling, the Rs 1,000 note.
But their deaths have found recognition once again.
Yes, in the form of the reported failure to recover much of the mythical black money; but the day has come, almost two circles around the sun later, when one sits and remembers a time a piece of paper was worth its name.
(Coauthored by Poulomi Ghosh and Pathikrit Sanyal)