Shobhaa De Copies Comedian’s Tweet Word For Word. She’s A Writer. Surely, She Can String Something Together?

As a writer, the first thing that my editor ever told me was to never plagiarize someone else’s words. But that’s obvious no? That you shouldn’t copy wasn’t a lesson limited to school, it should stay with you for, well, ever,  And this, not just based on a moral conscience, but also because it could attract a lot of trouble and by the looks of it, could attract a lot of social media trolling too. As has happened with writer Shobha De quite recently. 

The writer and columnist who often writes about sex and the life of socialites, recently found herself in a bit of a social-light herself, after she made a rookie mistake of copying someone else’s words. That ‘someone else’ being – the famous comedian Atul Khatri. It happened after the government scrapped article 370, and hundreds of people were taking to Twitter to announce either their delight or disgruntlement over the decision. 

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Now the decision, that was taken to waive the special status of Jammu and Kashmir off was so sudden that it left most of us, including many from the tinsel town conflicted, whether to be happy about the outcome or annoyed over the way it was done. But the bigger dilemma here was for Shobha De, who probably couldn’t decide which meme or joke to use, out of the million that were floating around on the internet, until she finally decided to pick the words of comedian Atul Khatri and copied his tweet, word for word.

Dear Amit Shah,
now that you have solved the Kashmir problem can you please take some time out and also resolve the Saki Naka traffic problem which is going on also since 1947

Regards
Akkha Mumbai

— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 5, 2019

Addressing the Saki Naka traffic, with a not-so-subtle dig at Home Minister Amit Shah, the comedian had posted, “Dear Amit Shah, now that you have solved the Kashmir problem can you please take some time out and also resolve the Saki Naka traffic problem which is going on also since 1947”, signing off on the behalf of ‘Akkha Mumbai’. His post on Facebook that received over 6K likes in a record time, also got him one plagiarised repost from Shobha De and neither the internet nor Atul let it slide under the carpet. It was probably worse because she didn’t credit him at all.

Is she actually a writer?

— Javachip Frappuccino (@DebuggingDamsel) August 5, 2019

Has she apologised or acknowledged your tweet? This is a black hole in which entire Saki Naka is being sucked into. Or is just late on a Monday night.

— Sabre_tongued 🇮🇳 (@sabre_tongued) August 5, 2019

Lazy copy paste. Not changed even single word. Looks like IT engineer and not a writer.

— Nice_Thought (@RaviHannurkar) August 6, 2019

Seriously @DeShobhaa ?? You also copy a lot of whatsapp jokes! At least give credit lady!

— Balance (@observor123) August 6, 2019

The comedian, upon finding out about Shobha’s doing, was quick to make a comeback, by replying to her tweet by saying, “Dear Shobhaa, As a writer you should know that you shouldn’t plagiarize. Regards, Akkha Mumbai.” And honestly, we couldn’t have thought of a better burn for Shobhaa. I mean, for someone who has been in the industry for long enough and knows how quickly the word gets around, should’ve known better than to pick up that joke as is.  I mean, the least you can do is tweak and personalise it so that you’re not exactly copying someone else. A tip that writer Shobha De never seemed to have received. A fact that Atul was quick to change and how. 

And just for the record, not all writers do that okay? Okay.

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