How I got brain rot – and I’m perfectly fine with it

As a news editor, I have to eyeroll at the decision of the well-meaning folks at Oxford University Press to declare “brain rot” as the word of the year.

Given what has gone on in 2024 – Israeli missiles blitzing children to death in Gaza, with full backing of a “rules-backed” world order, a convict and misogynist becoming president of the United States, Hindutva fantasies of annexing more mosques getting loonier, children being expelled from schools for allegedly bringing “non-veg” tiffin, more proof of the climate apocalypse blowing in the wind – let me say that the slow crumbling of sanity in the real world, which I track as part of my job, gives me daily brain rot much more than a diet of memes and reels.

Also, the memes are much more fun.

My taste in “brain rot” often combines my love for the silly and the ridiculous with Bollywood. Mimicking Hindi cinema actors is an old genre of comedy in India – an expression of affection for the stars.

There are plenty of Instagram upgrades of this – one man doing versions of Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh dancing to the same hook step, and making each look different. But this year, I have...

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