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| - Fact Check: Don't believe this emotional story from the City Of Joy
A picture of a young girl pulling a hand rickshaw with a frail old man sitting in the back, while some schoolboys look on, is being widely shared on social media.
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India Today Fact Check
India Today Fact Check Team found that the girl is neither an IAS topper nor her father a rickshaw puller. It's from a photoshoot.
Picture of a young girl pulling a hand rickshaw with a frail old man sitting in the back, while some schoolboys look on, is being widely shared on the social media. But it is the message along with the picture which is really moving. It is being claimed that the girl is "an IAS topper introducing her father to people. A grand salute to her and her father".
On Facebook, most of the people are sharing the post that was put up by a Facebook page "Silchar Diary". The post has already been shared more than 32,000 times from this page alone at the time of filing this story.
Congress leader and former union minister @ShashiTharoor is among the thousands of people who have shared it on twitter.
India Today Fact Check Team found that the girl is neither an IAS topper nor her father a rickshaw puller. The story spun around the picture doing round on the social media is totally false.
A Google reverse search about the picture throws up many results where this picture has been used. Scanning through these results, we could reach the Instagram profile of the young girl who figures in the picture. Her name is Shramona Poddar and her Instagram handle is mishti.and.meat.
We reached out to Shramona Poddar and were able to speak to her over the phone. Shramona, who is currently travelling to Mumbai, told us that she is a travel blogger who also works on promotional assignments for some brands. She told us that she is a resident of Chandannagar near Kolkata and her father is a doctor. She certainly is not an IAS topper.
Sharing with us the real story behind the picture, she said that she has grown up in Kolkata and the sight of a man pulling hand rickshaw with someone sitting behind, always evoked many emotions inside her. How would it feel? How difficult it must be? "That particular day, I decided to try it myself and requested the rickshaw puller uncle to sit behind as a rider. Pulling the hand rickshaw in the streets of Shobha Bazaar, while the onlookers saw me with awe, I quickly realised what a pain it is. My photographer friend Bhaskar clicked the picture while we were shooting in different parts of the story for a campaign for Wildcraft. Later on, I shared the whole story on Instagram," told Shramona. The story about the picture and that she shared can be read here.
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
Shramona is aware that her picture is being shared widely with a totally fictitious story. "It feels bad because it is also dragging my parents into it. They have even received calls regarding this false story," she rued.
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