When FB faced global outage
On October 5, as Facebook and other social media apps that it owns (WhatsApp and Instagram) suffered a major global outage including in India for several hours, the entire world seemed to have descended on Twitter as #Facebookdown and #Instagramdown were trending.
Twitter made the most of this. Twitter’s remark through its official handle, “ Hello literally everyone ”, garnered huge traction and also got brands to join the party. McDonald’s, Microsoft Teams, Burger King, Reddit, Trucaller and Pizza Hut were among the various brands that joined this conversation with their own witty takes.
In fact, when WhatsApp’s official Twitter handle tried to respond to Twitter in a humorous manner, Twitter CEO and Co-founder Jack Dorsey didn’t hold back and took a dig at FB-owned WhatsApp. “Thought this was supposed to be encrypted,” he responded to WhatsApp on Twitter.
CEA hits a sixer
The outgoing Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian is a big fan and follower of Indian cricket. He does not lose an opportunity to extol the success of the Indian team in the cricket field and how over the years the Indian cricket team has put its stamp not only on home wickets and across all formats of the game, but in overseas tours as well.
Subramanian brought in cricket analogy even in the media statement this past week to announce his return to academia after he completes his three-year stint as the Chief Economic Advisor.
He went on to say as to how he carefully picked the team of talented and motivated professionals from the Indian Economic Service for the preparation of ‘Economic Surveys’ in a way that Sourav Ganguly exemplified, remaining calm while continually paddling underneath as Dhoni epitomised, and always putting the nation first in a way that Rahul Dravid demonstrated.
End result: the performance of the carefully chosen team of Indian Economic Service officials — who responded to the responsibility and freedom entrusted to them — has been wonderful in recent years, like that of the Indian cricket team.
A good parting shot from the CEA, hitting it out of the park, quipped an economy watcher.
Pleasing the bosses
It’s not quite unusual to refer to political leaders as ‘ amma’ , ‘ akka ' or ‘ anna ’. From Annadurai, Indira Gandhi, MGR and NTR to Jayalalithaa, it’s quite common for people to call their favourite leaders as an elder brother or mother or a sister.
To show their allegiance, second-rung leaders don’t mind using adjectives that sometimes can leave the leaders embarrassed.
Going full throttle in praising TRS President and Chief Minister, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), a senior TRS leader said KCR is taking care of women like their husbands.
While taking part in a meeting to give away sarees to women under the Bathukamma saree distribution scheme the other day, the leader said: “Parents are not giving (sarees), the in-laws are not giving them. But KCR, like a dutiful husband, is giving you sarees.”
Political leaders go to any extent to please their bosses. The social media was full of satirical comments, flaying the leader.
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