All at sea, Minister?

Making sense of the good, bad and often strange trending topics online

Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy, also known as the guy who defied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was not only denied a cabinet rank but also shunted out as minister of state for railways.

News of him retaining the shipping portfolio as a junior minister made many react with a mixture of glee and trepidation. One smart Alec tweeted: 'Roy won't have to worry about ships derailing or visiting accident sites anymore.'

A certain Soumik Sen added: 'He is already preparing a sea-sickness excuse when the desi Titanic happens.' Ravi Rao expressed the view that Roy ought to be given charge of one railway station as Station Minister, 'as anything larger is beyond him.'

Eventually, it was up to former MP Pritish Nandy to put things into perspective: 'Three rail accidents in six days and 100 dead, while Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi fight over who will be the next Railway Minister.'

On going green
Another minister to make it to the list of trending topics was Jairam Ramesh, who was reportedly 'elevated' from minister of state for environment to cabinet minister for rural development. Sudha Rajagopalan believed 'Ramesh had to be shunted out before he did anything more beneficial for the environment,' while Krupakar Manukonda tweeted: 'Now, he should go around the environment ministry with files he rejected earlier, as a punishment.'

Tying the knot
A number of people spent much time adding their peculiar requirements to the sentence 'whoever I marry ufffd' Responses ranged from 'will need plenty of stamina' and 'will give me a massage every night' to 'needs to know how to dress' and, worryingly, 'will have to deal with my undying love for Lady Gaga.'

The last word
We can all learn a little something from filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma. 'If we don't have problems in life,' he tweeted, 'we would just be bored to death.' And he should know.

Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online