GOING THE VIRAL WAY
Five Indians who went viral by doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways
DANCING UNCLE
Sanjeev Srivastava, a 46-year-old electronics professor from Madhya Pradesh, shot to overnight fame in 2018 when a video of him grooving to Govinda’s 80s song ‘Aap Ke Aa Jaane Se’ with pure abandon at a wedding went viral, prompting the internet to nickname him “Dancing Uncle”. Even Govinda gave his vote of approval to the dance moves, which have also inspired a short film.
THE RUNNING HERO
This March, filmmaker Vinod Kapri filmed McDonald’s employee Pradeep Mehra running through Noida at midnight. The 19-year-old from Uttarakhand runs 10 km from work to home in order to train himself for the Indian Army. In an interview, he revealed he was forced to juggle work with practice to provide for his ailing mother. Photographer Atul Kasbekar gifted him running shoes, training gear and a backpack; retail brand Shoppers Stop gave him Rs 2.5 lakh to help with his mother’s treatment.
THE MILKY WAY
The image of Indian milkmen was given a makeover in April, when the video of a particularly ingenious doodhwala went viral. Riding a three-wheeler that looked part-Batmobile, part-F1 car, the driver caught the attention of several Twitter users, including Anand Mahindra. “This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while. I want to meet this road warrior,” wrote the Mahindra chairman. But, like Batman, the helmeted Milkman likes to stay mysterious.
FLYING DOSA MAN
What’s a dosa without some magic? That seems to be the motto of a dosa man at Shree Balaji Dosa Factory in Mumbai’s Kalbadevi. An Instagram video that captured him throwing a perfectly crisp masala dosa onto a plate held by a server left the internet awestruck.
KACHA BADAM
Bhuban Badyakar, a peanut seller in West Bengal’s Kuraljuri village, invented ‘Kacha Badam’, a catchy rhyme to attract customers. When someone posted a video of him singing his song on YouTube last year, it turned Badyakar and his bag of peanuts into a nationwide trend, inspiring countless memes, dance video reels, and even an autotuned peppy remix.