On Sunday evening, journalist turned filmmaker Vino Kapri had shared a video of a 19 years old boy, Pradeep Mehra, running on the road at midnight. The boy, hailing from Almora in Uttarakhand, was catching up on his physical exercise to prepare for the Army recruitment medical exam. While Kapri had offered him lift in his car, he had declined saying it is his routine, and had informed that since he does not get time on other times of the day to prepare for physical examination, he runs from his workplace to his residence every night instead of taking public transportation. Since then, the whole internet has gone gaga over the boy, with Kapri’s original tweet has got nearly 75 thousand retweets so far.
Sharing the video of his encounter with Pradeep, Kapri tweeted ,”This is PURE GOLD. Last night at 12 o’clock on the road of Noida, I saw this boy running very fast with a bag on his shoulder. I thought he could be in trouble so I should offer him a lift. I repeatedly offered him a lift but he declined. You will fall in love with this child if you get to know the reason.”
This is PURE GOLD❤️❤️
— Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) March 20, 2022
नोएडा की सड़क पर कल रात 12 बजे मुझे ये लड़का कंधे पर बैग टांगें बहुत तेज़ दौड़ता नज़र आया
मैंने सोचा
किसी परेशानी में होगा , लिफ़्ट देनी चाहिए
बार बार लिफ़्ट का ऑफ़र किया पर इसने मना कर दिया
वजह सुनेंगे तो आपको इस बच्चे से प्यार हो जाएगा ❤️😊 pic.twitter.com/kjBcLS5CQu
The boy’s spirit and commitment towards his goal won over the entire internet. Even sporting greats like Kevin Pietersen and Harbhajan Singh admired him among others.
This will make your Monday morning! What A Guy! 🤍🙏🏽 https://t.co/RLknfAsCKE
— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) March 21, 2022
👌👌👌👌 champions are made like this .. whether on sports field or anything they do in life .. He will be a winner ✅thank you vinod for sharing this .. yes PURE GOLD 🙌 https://t.co/2tzc28nbNu
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) March 20, 2022
The boy, Pradeep Mehra, was even offered training by several ex-servicemen to realize his dream of making it to the Indian Army.
His Josh is commendable, and to help him pass the recruitment tests on his merit, I’ve interacted with Colonel of KUMAON Regiment, Lt Gen Rana Kalita, the Eastern Army Commander. He is doing the needful to train the boy for recruitment into his Regiment.
— Lt Gen Satish Dua🇮🇳 (@TheSatishDua) March 21, 2022
Jai Hind 🇮🇳 https://t.co/iasbkQvvII
However, with social media fame, unfortunately comes mainstream media attention and their tendency to make a spectacle out of you. As Baba Ka Dhaba owner discovered earlier, mainstream media attention is not always beneficial.
News18 Uttar Pradesh, invited the young boy to their studio, and made a mockery out of his whole struggle by making him run inside their studio for some apparent reason. As they played his interview on one side of the screen, the other half of the screen showed Pradeep Mehra running around their studio for no apparent reason.
NEWS18 के स्टूडियो में प्रदीप मेहरा#PradipMehra #RUNNINGBOY @arzoosai @nsbhattacharje pic.twitter.com/1qlmbECBXp
— News18 Uttar Pradesh (@News18UP) March 21, 2022
Turning the whole struggle of the teenager into a circus act, the news channel kept running the visuals of him running around their studio in a loop.
They also captioned the news segment as Bhag Pradeep Bhag.
As per another tweet by Vinod Kapri, the news channel made him switch his phone off for hours, and even made him miss his job shift. Even his elder brother was unaware of his whereabouts during this time, as Pradeep was forced to keep his phone switched off. The brother said that some news channel had taken Pradeeo away, and he didn’t know which channel did it.
अभी पता चला है कि #PradeepMehra को @News18India @News18UP ने दो घंटे से स्टूडियो में रखा है। ये सब तमाशा बंद कीजिए आप लोग। 12 बजे से उसकी शिफ़्ट है। भाई तक को पता नहीं है कि वो कहाँ है। कम से कम उसे नौकरी पर जाने दो। बस करो ये सब। https://t.co/qoGxebpQXZ
— Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) March 21, 2022
Vinod Kapri has appealed all the media houses to stop harrasing Pradeep Mehta. He said that all the relevant video footage and Pradeep’s interview are present on his Twitter handle, and the media can use them without seeking permission, without giving credit.
सभी मीडिया संस्थानों से मेरा विनम्र निवेदन #PradeepMehra को परेशान करना बंद कीजिए
— Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) March 21, 2022
-सारे वीडियो/इंटरव्यू मेरी टाइमलाइन पर हैं , आप बिना इजाज़त के भी,बिना क्रेडिट दिए हुए भी उसे इस्तेमाल करने के लिए स्वतंत्र हैं
-बस उस बच्चे को अपनी ज़िंदगी जीने दो।उसका तमाशा बंद करो🙏🏻 https://t.co/iuoA5QiSHc
‘Just let that kid live his life. Stop his spectacle’, Kapri said in his ‘humble request’ to all media organisations.
Looking at the coverage of some news channels, you would believe that they have never seen either a poor person, or a person working hard. A simple inspirational story of struggle and ambition has been turned into a circus act by some of these 24×7 news channels.
