From CBSE Paper Leak To ¡®Achhe Din¡¯, Twinkle Khanna Says This Fool¡¯s Day, The Joke Is On Us
The most elaborate April Fools¡¯ Day prank I have ever been part of was courtesy my Masi. She decided that since the date coincided with an obligatory dinner with a distant cousin, Madhu aunty, a prank was definitely the order of the day.
Madhu aunty had cropped hair, a foreign accent and she brought me an array of imported goodies¡ª chocolates, pens and a sharpener disguised as a mini football, goodies that thrilled my eight-year-old heart.
At precisely 9 pm, the house was plunged into darkness, thanks to our cook who had been entrusted with this vital task. We lit two candles and Madhu aunty remarked, ¡®I forgot all the power cuts you people have to live with in India. In Houston, such things never happen.¡¯ My nanny, as pre-arranged, began walking in the garden outside, covered head to toe in a white bedsheet with eyeholes cut out. ¡®What is that?¡¯ a frantic Madhu aunty said, while we pretended to be oblivious.
The ghostly figure climbed up the stairs, entered our living room and sat on an armchair. Madhu aunty was hysterical, ¡®Can¡¯t you see it? It is sitting on that chair!¡¯
And finally came my starring role. ¡®Where aunty, I can¡¯t see anything!¡¯ She pointed a trembling finger at the figure. I promptly walked to the chair and sat on nanny¡¯s lap. ¡®See there is nothing here! ¡¯ At which point she began screaming hysterically, ¡®Bhoot, bhoot,¡¯ her carefully cultivated American twang discarded like used tissue paper, though she looked like could have used one to wipe all the sweat off her face. Needless to say it was a very short dinner, and Madhu aunty never came over with imported gifts again so guess who turned out to be the real April fool in the end.
But how did this day of pranks originate in the first place? There are myriad theories, the more likely one seems to be that when the western world moved from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one, some folks insisted on still celebrating the New Year on April 1, and so the day was renamed April Fools¡¯ Day.
There have been many great hoaxes through history. In 1957, the BBC showed a family in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a tree. British viewers immediately wanted to know where they could get a pasta tree. A few years ago, a company declared that it was introducing left-handed toilet paper and people started making inquiries about where they buy these special rolls. Sweden¡¯s SVT in 1962 informed viewers that they could convert their existing sets to display colour reception by pulling a stocking over their TV screen. Thousands of Swedes fell for it.
India too has had its share of April Fools¡¯ Day pranks. The one I remember clearly was when Cine Blitz, a film magazine had an April cover with what they claimed was Sridevi¡¯s sister. A pale-skinned woman with red pouting lips and a silk turban (Err¡ this was the era of glamorous turbans for some bizarre reason). This alluring creature turned out to be none other than Anupam Kher!
But the days when Indians celebrated April Fool on a single day are long gone. Just take the last few months. We had a tiny zircon, Nirav Modi, fooling the banks into thinking he was a real gem. Then our science and technology minister claimed that it was Stephen Hawking who said the Vedas have a theory that is superior to the theory of relativity.
We also have marigold phools like MLA Pannalal Shakya saying girls should not make boyfriends, which has led to the same girls fasting last Monday asking God not to make men like him in the first place.
Let¡¯s not forget the lakhs of young students who spent endless nights studying while their parents spent the same amount of time worrying. But just as students finished their papers and were starting to celebrate, the CBSE woke up to paper leaks and announced, ¡°Fooled you! Exam warriors, this doesn¡¯t count! Now, you have to do it all over again!¡±
Then we have the Rs 3,600-crore Shivaji statue, which is now going to be even taller ¡ª from 192m to 210m, according to a report in this very paper. Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, meanwhile, is accusing the BJP government of making the proposed statue shorter. This is literally the height of absurdity. Either way, the statue will prove to be very useful in the future, as it ensures that all 1.3 billion of us have enough space to repeatedly bang our heads on its vast surface.
Around the world, April Fools¡¯ Day comes once a year, but we Indians celebrate it every day, we just call it achhe din.
