Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s return to India was marked by relief and celebration. However, soon after he came back to India on Friday, 1 March, a string of similar-looking tweets flooded the micro-blogging site, highlighting once again how viral content on social media, is often just... viral content.
‘Baby Boy’ Abhinandan Everywhere
A number of Twitter users put up tweets claiming the birth of a ‘baby boy’ in their family, whom they named Abhinandan. But, guess what? All these tweets had a template as they used similar captions and often even the same picture.
The fact that the caption was copied without putting much though to it can be best comprehended in a particular tweet posted by a handle @iamkesarchauhan, who ended up saying that his ‘brother’ gave birth to a boy.
Where Did It All Start?
The ‘baby boy tweets’ can be traced back to one Anuj Ojha, who uses the Twitter handle @ajjuishere.
On 1 March, he had tweeted saying that his aunt has given birth to a baby boy who has been named Abhinandan. The tweet received huge traction, having been retweeted more than 800 times so far.
On 2 March, a day after the tweets went viral, Anuj called out the trend, terming the act of those involved ‘shameless’.
Speaking to The Quint, Ojha said, “The matter has reached a stage where I have had to change my display picture, Twitter handle and name on the site. People are saying that I work for the IT cell. But that’s not the case”. He also said he does not wish to escalate the matter any further.
‘Baby Abhinandan’ a Rage Nevertheless
Even as many of the ‘Twitter babies’ were copy-paste jobs, there have been genuine instances too, of parents naming their newborn Abhinandan.
The Quint could contact at least two such families. Janesh Bhutani, who stays in Alwar in Rajasthan said that the family unanimously decided to name his grandson, born on 1 March evening, Abhinandan. Mukesh Meena of Nihalpura in Dausa in the same state, echoed a similar story behind naming his son after the Wing Commander.
Both Bhutani and Meena, however, confirmed that the pictures of the babies going viral on social media are not of their family’s newest member.
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