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Candid camera: ToI's Kate 'moment', Taher Shah and Delhi's killer Mercedes

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Parth Arora
Parth AroraApr 15, 2016 | 19:37

Candid camera: ToI's Kate 'moment', Taher Shah and Delhi's killer Mercedes

Candid Camera returns in a week where things got too candid for the young British Royalty. It was generally a bad week for big media in India, but we have to start where the world should start, and that is with people shooting cigarettes.

1. Shooting far off things is art

This guy shot the end of a cigarette with an AK-47!

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Now the guy is probably a terrorist and that weapon was most probably acquired illegally, but the skill? Shooting requires incredible hand-eye coordination (ask Abhinav Bindra) and the dude in the video was born with all off it.

On one side, if he's shooting cigarettes, he could have been easily winning medals at the Olympics. On the other, he is using his AK-47 to make his friend quit smoking! #WeBelieve

2. Taher Shah is a legend

Some things are so bad that they're awesome.

Does Taher Shah mean "The epitome of supreme confidence in self to do anything?" I'm not sure, but it definitely should.

Taher Shah's "Angel" broke the internet twice; once in anticipation, the other in constipation.

It cultivated numerous think pieces about his music giving rise to "Cringe-Pop", about how he's redefining virality, yada-yada.

I just know one thing: It's Taher Shah's world and we're all just passing by.

3. Mercedes and Delhi's 'cool' culture

Full disclosure: I went to the same school as the boy, who was allegedly driving the Mercedes, and I don't even own a Mercedes.

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Siddharth Sharma's death raised an important question about the idea of "cool" in Delhi. Rich kids in Delhi are basically of two types. Those who're comfortable with their identity and those who aren't.

It's the second group which acts out and defines itself by driving daddy's Mercedes really fast around school because it's "cool". The problem is that sometimes it gets you two cool points and a Snapchat story or, well, lands you and daddy dearest in jail.

I'd rather just go to Big Chill.

4. Mind your caption

India is going through a massive water crisis with drought in some states, but a national news daily chooses to focus on Kate Middleton's skirt:

kate_041516065943.jpg
 

Now, there are obvious problems here (misogyny and Kate just seems like a dull person aside). The biggest issue here is that this wasn’t even an original idea. Variety (America’s gossip tabloid) and Britain’s Daily Mail ran with the same photo with the same joke.

So what's with all this yellow journalism?

All this, along with the soul-stirring (put-me-on-a-diet-please) story of the weight-loss programme of Mukesh Ambani’s son made this really not the best week for big media.

Last updated: April 15, 2016 | 19:47
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