FOOL!

If this is funny, I think I'll laugh...

Since today is Fool's Day (which means all newspaper editors are celebrating their birthdays from dusk to dawn), this is a great chance to bring out the child in you. Bring it out in print. Bring it out unashamedly and throw in a disclaimer at the end: Happy April Fool's Day!

Hence we have imaginative gems splashed everywhere. Sania Mirza sets knitting world record. Mermaids spotted. Viveik, Salman to attend Ash's wedding. Ash-Abhishek not to wed after all. Sachin's Ferrari to be taken back.

This is not just Fool's Day for the media. This is I-was-born-hopelessly-foolish Fool's Day. Cheers!!

I mean, check out the humour-metre, people. When Home Minister for State Siddharam Metre declares that he will get Google Earth banished from Maharashtra, nobody even smiles. When Rakhi Sawant launches a cricket programme outrageously (and aptly) titled 'Rakhi's Bouncers', poor Paras Tomar goes blue in the face trying to point out the intended pun, but no business results.

Point of the matter being, that when potentially funny situations that beg to be written about with a witty pen do create themselves, fools such as us are looking the other way. And then we think we're being funnier than dammit when we poke fun at celebrities on April 1.

Who needs celebs, when we, the fourth estate, comprise such a big pack of jokers that the world could laugh all year round? Why were such fools like Malavika Sangghvi, Khalid Mohamed, all of Times Response, Santosh Andhale and Avirook Sen born if not to keep us giggling and chuckling over our morning cup of tea?

It's such a wonderful word, Fool. It was invented expressly for the media. Said anyhow and anywhere, spoken with affection or exasperation, shouted out loud or just allowed to drift across the mind when listening to the boss speak, Fool is a word that encapsulates all the relevant emotions in one simple, musical and forceful word. Try it --

U FOOL, I've already filed it.
Oh God, my editor is such a fool.
What a fool. Reporter hai ya mazaak?!
No, I won't file it like that, because I'm not a fool.

What's more, we (fools) look forward to Fools Day with a manic delight because at least some 'funny' news can be written about that saves us the trouble for looking at real news instead. I notice nobody's written a thing about the numerous budget proposals that come into effect in Maharashtra from today, April 1.

Still wondering what Fool's Paradise looks like?