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The Image of Rickshaw Puller Girl Goes Viral on the Social Media, What is the Fact behind this Picture?

Social media has become the second world for all of us, and we dwell into social media day in day out, but do you know that everything that you come
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Social media has become the second world for all of us, and we dwell into social media day in day out, but do you know that everything that you come across on the social media is not real? Yes, there are facts but more than that we come across the hoax. There are people who make use of social media to spread false information, and we do not have many options to verify the facts,

The worst part is, many times we forward the messages we receive on social media to our friends and relatives making the situation more vulnerable. Here we are going to talk about the viral picture of the girl pulling rickshaw with the title “IAS topper introducing her rickshaw-puller father to the world in Kolkata.”

You can see the image of a young girl pulling a rickshaw with an old man sitting behind. The picture has gone viral on social media with the tagline “An IAS topper was introducing her rickshaw-puller father to the world in Kolkata.” The news is false and the girl is not an IAS topper neither the person sitting behind is her father. Then what is the fact behind the picture? let us take a look at the real story behind this viral picture.

According to the reports, the whole story began with just one tweet by Dr J Aslam Basha, a Congress member from Tamil Nadu, who twitter saying “IAS officer introducing her father to people. Grand Solute to her and her father”

The story did not stop here. The tweet of Basha was retweeted by the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor which made the new go viral beyond the expectations.

Following the viral post all across the social media, investigative journalism began and soon the facts behind the picture surfaced.

According to the reports, the picture is real and it is not morphed by anyone but the news is false. According to the Quint, The girl in the picture is Shramona Poddar, a travel blogger, and not an IAS topper as claimed in the message. Poddar had shared the photo on her Instagram profile in April, while also detailing the story behind the photo.

According to the reports published by Boom Live, The photograph was taken by Instagram user Shramona Poddar and posted in April this year. The description of the photograph is clear that the rickshaw puller is not related to the girl. Her post explains her gradual shift in perception towards rickshaw pullers – from sympathy to appreciation of the sheer physicality and precision required to operate a hand-pulled rickshaw. The post has received close to 14,000 Likes.

View this post on Instagram

Repost from @wildcraftin So here goes the story behind this. Since childhood, whenever I used to visit the north and central part of Calcutta essentially, I would feel sympathetic everytime I would spot a hand pulled rickshaw, thereby choosing not to use them. Until recently when my sympathy coincided with the realization that we're helping to earn their bread and butter only when we're taking a ride. So last time I was in Calcutta, the #wildcraftwildling in me decided to pull a handpull rickshaw instead, to see how difficult and strenuous it really is. I asked the rickshaw uncle to have a seat while I pulled him around on the streets of Shobhabazar, tickling the bell at intervals while the whole street stood and watched in awe. I realized though there's a lot of mechanism involved, it wasn't a piece of cake at all. All my years of inquistiveness transpired to salutation for the extreme precision and relentless efforts that go in during each trip made. Yet each day they wake up with the same enthusiasm to battle the odds. This spirit is what inspires me to be #ReadyforAnything. #GoStreet #kolkata #calcutta #calcuttacacaphony #travel #handpullrickshaw #wildcraft #adventure #kolkatatourism #MishtiAndMeatftWildcraft Photo by @bhaskar_0007

A post shared by Shramona Poddar (@mishti.and.meat) on

The girl in the picture, Shramona told the Boom that the photo was clicked a few months ago by one her friend went viral with the different facts. “It (the photo) was taken a few months ago and it went viral at that time too but not something bizarre like this,” travel blogger Shramona Poddar told BOOM. Poddar also explained that while the photo was shot by a photographer it is not part of an ad campaign.

The ad camping she was talking about was of the Wildcraft outdoor and adventure product company who picked up her image as a part of their social media campaign.

With the above story, it is very clear that everything we come across on the social media is not true regardless of who spread it. Sometimes we get carried away with the status of the person who spreads it on the social media and takes the things for granted.

Here in this case also the first time it was used by the outdoor product company for their social media campaign while second time it was tweeted by the senior Congress members.

So the next time you come across any such post, please verify it before forwarding the same to your friends. please do share about the stories similar to this that you have come across and if we find it interesting, we will surely publish the same. Please do not forget to leave your valuable comments and suggestions on this story.

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