When I picked up the newspaper today, the first thing that struck my attention was Salman Khan hugging Shah Rukh Khan at an Iftar party. Yes, on page one.

While boiling water to make some tea, I asked my roommate, “What’s the point of taking this story on page one? I mean it’s just a hug.” My roommate laughed and said, “Of course its page one material. Wasn’t this the first story you read when you picked up the newspaper?” Oh damn, it was.

I realised I was no different than the rest of the Bollywood crazy nation. This is despite being a journalist who should be looking for “serious news” to read on the front page. I logged on to twitter and the topic was the top trending one. I clicked on #SalmanhuggedSRK and this is what followed.

Karan arjun reunite #SalmanhuggedSRK

Rupee set to recover as #SalmanhuggedSRK

Hug of the century #SalmanhuggedSRK

We have solved the last international crisis and now there will be peace all around. #SalmanhuggedSRK UPA Govt will add this under achievement for next election campaign.

#SalmanhuggedSRK and moved away quickly from there. It was a case of hug and run.

#SalmanhuggedSRK Now our economy will grow by 10%. Chinese soldiers will return.

All terrorists will surrender and petrol prices will fall 50% Baba Siddiqui nominated for Nobel peace prize for brokering peace between Salman Khan and SRK. #SalmanhuggedSRK

Needless to say, I died laughing. But then I wondered if newspapers hadn’t published this news item at all, would it have made a difference? I guess not.

People do blame the media for adding hype to useless stuff and making it sound big. Was this the case this time? A couple of colleagues in office joked about who would have made the first move. I guess we’ll never know. Or we might, some day on page one.

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