Witerati | Every dog has his day

Ratan Tata might turn in his grave were he to know that the loved ones he left behind weren’t spared from being targets of that malaise mapping Digital India – fake news.
Barely had Ratan crossed the border into the other world, that some idle netizens crossed all boundaries. Of credibility, of restraint and responsibility.
On a million smartphones of Digital India, there landed the heart-tugging tidings that barely a day or two after Ratan’s demise, his beloved canine companion, Goa, had kicked the bucket too.
A surging wave of emotion, a wave of empathy swept the heartbeats of Twitterverse. For better or for adverse.
This is the stuff that Manmohan Desai potboilers used to be scripted of.
“Kutta insaan se zyada wafadar hota hai, aii.” One could almost imagine Big B mouthing a Desai-esque dialogue on those lines.
One even imagined a Ramesh Sippy-esque twist to the tale, with Dharmendra barking, “Iss kutte ki aage ki mutt sochna, Basanti!”
Or, in Salman Bhai style, one almost visualised Ratan’s pet Goa woofing his dying declaration with swag and wag, “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, uske baad toh main khud ki bhi nahin sunta.”
A zillion dog lovers inhabiting Digital India may have felt their lachrymose glands leaking at this loyalty narrative. Their activated tear glands may have spewed a flood of fellow feeling. A collective flood, of sorrowful sentiment, that could have paled into a teeny trickle the real floods sweeping other parts of the world.
It was this spate of sentiment that spurred WhatsAppers into twiddling their carpal tendons to a tizzy. To do what they do best – toss up tidings into viral mode.
Lo behold!
Fake news went frolicking to have its day out. With Goa, without Goa.
Until there came to the rescue of the voiceless canine a clever and curious member of the Marathi constabulary. Inspector Sudhir Kudalkar.
Call of duty sent pottering this man in khaki, to do his own recce.
The fake news gone viral got a pronto burial.
This brings us to a “grave” concern – what are the motives driving such fake news narratives? What makes netizens churn out such blatant falsehoods?
Cheap thrills? Voyeurism? Lack of esteem or purpose in life? Fifteen minutes of fame, from defame, for idle inhabitants of ivory towers of cyberia?
The curious case of not making head or tail of it.
Paris when it fizzles
While wars across the world got bigger, one side war was determined to drive home the point that no war is small.
Social media was swept by a different war, which left Tweeple wondering which war is bigger – real or reel.
French President Emmanuel Macron went to war with Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri over a mere Netflix series. “Emily in Paris”.
Blame it on a territorial dispute.
They locked horns over whether or not this OTT series should switch the locale for its Season 5 from Paris to Rome.
The Roman Mayor took potshots at the President for waging war over paltry matters when there were bigger wars rocking the world.
Big or small, this is one war that could certainly have more watchers.
When it comes to wars, small may be the new big.
The curious case of ‘The Feud of Small Things’.
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