Their Viral Videos Made Them A National Sensation
It can only happen in today’s age of social media and cheap internet where a ‘nobody’ becomes an internet sensation overnight with just one social media post or it could be just out of the viral videos circulating over WhatsApp.
Ranu Mondal, Vipin Sahu, Sonu Bhai, Kamalathal, Muhammed Sarim, Charulata Patel and Hindustani Bhau are living examples of the power of people in today’s connected world.
The Paragliding Guy from the abusive viral video
Remember Vipin Sahu? The screaming guy just wanting the glider to land, who became a social media sensation overnight with his paragliding video in 2019. He screamed, shouted and even tried to bribe the instructor to get him back on the ground. However, the key highlight of the video was the part where he starts abusing himself for signing up for paragliding.
Later on, recounting his experience, he said, “Jab tak aasman main they tab tak to bahut achcha tha.” He added, “Jaise hi thoda neeche aae aur neeche ka manzar dekha, uske baad jo mere muh se shloko ka pravachan hua hai, vo aapke samne hi hai.”
Vipin said that before this, he had never even been on big swings at amusement parks. This was the first time in his life that he did something like this and jumped from 12,000 feet.
The rise of Ranu Mondal
Ranu Mondal stationed herself at the Ranaghat Railway station in West Bengal and was spotted singing the popular 1972 track of Lata Mangeshkar’s iconic song Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai. She had done this often but Ranu had no clue that her life would take a 360-degree turn after that evening. Ranu’s rendition of Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai went viral within seconds on social media and soon after, she was invited to a reality show in Mumbai.
As luck would have it, Himesh Reshammiya, who appeared as a judge on the show, approved of Ranu’s singing skills and was delighted with Ranu’s voice as she sang a few numbers on the stage. Himesh, thereafter, requested Ranu to sing for Happy Hardy and Heer.
Idlis for Re 1. Anyone?
This story left us feeling the motherly love and warmth of an 80-year-old woman Kamalathal lives in Vadivelampalayam, a village near Peru in Tamil Nadu. She sells idlis for just Re 1 per piece (Initially she used to sell the idlis at 50 paise per piece but as the ingredients got expensive she raised the price to Re 1) along with sambhar and chutney. She has been doing this for 30-35 years and sells over 1000 idlis a day.
The reason behind the pricing of the idlis is that the daily wage workers can start their day on a full stomach and save money for their families.She said, “Profits are not my priority but feeding the people is what drives me to work.”
Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra recently took to his Twitter account to share the story with us. He tweeted with the caption, “One of those humbling stories that make you wonder if everything you do is even a fraction as impactful as the work of people like Kamalathal. I notice she still uses a wood-burning stove. If anyone knows her I’d be happy to ‘invest’ in her business & buy her an LPG fueled stove.”
Sonu Bhai from Happy Rider viral video
Sonu Bhai aka Happy Rider is a delivery boy who works at Zomato. He became famous in a matter of time for his smile and become a top content for memes. It seems like the internet can’t stop gushing over Zomato’s happy rider after his TikTok video went crazy viral on social media.
The conversation captured in a video by vlogger Delhi DC Rider went like this
Guy -: Kitna kama lete ho.
Sonu -: 350/- …..Incentive mila kar (with a big smile)😁😁
Guy -: Incentive mila kar. Aur khane ko milta hai?
Sonu (maintaining his big smile) -: Jo order cancel hota hai voh sab apna😁😁.
Guy-: Aur koi dikkat to nahi?
Sonu (with the same infectious smile)-:Nahi koi dikkat nahi sab sahi hai.😁😁
You can imagine the popularity of Sonu bhai as the DP of official Twitter and Instagram accounts of Zomato India was changed to photo of Sonu bhaiii, and bio “Welcome to the happy rider Fanclub”. The viral video was viewed over 5 million times on TikTok, and then spread on other social media platforms.
Muhammad Sarim Akhtar
His disheartening look was captured when a Pakistani player dropped a catch during a cricket match between Pakistan and Australia by the camera. The pic went viral and subsequently won him the title of ‘Meme Guy’.
Charulata Patel
During the ICC Cricket World Cup, an 87-year-old woman Charulata Patel, emerged as an Internet sensation after pictures and videos of her enthusiastically cheering Team India went viral. Patel’s enthusiasm won the Internet’s collective hearts. Later, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli met up with the special fan as well.
Hindustani Bhau
Hindustani Bhau aka Vikas Pathak became famous for his videos and dialogue “pehli fursat mein nikal”. Recently, he also participated in the controversial TV reality show Bigg Boss 13 as a contestant.
I hope you liked these stories of people like you and me who unexpectedly got into the limelight because of their viral videos. Do check out our other posts for more interesting stories.
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