"Yo @ElonMusk, " Jagdish tweeted, "heard you're a big shot inventor fella. But can you invent a carrom piece that can escape MY lightening strike?" The tweet, accompanied by a photo of Jagdish casually holding his javelin like a pool cue over a carrom board, sent the internet into a frenzy.
Experts were baffled. Was this a strategic marketing ploy by Jagdish to secure lucrative carrom board endorsements?Was it a desperate attempt to distract the nation from his recent underwhelming performance at the Asian Championships?Or was it a genuine, albeit slightly unhinged, challenge to the world's richest man?
The response was swift. #CarromChallenge became the number one trending topic within minutes. Memes flooded social media depicting Musk, head shaved and sporting a dhoti, looking utterly bewildered over a carrom board. One particularly popular meme featured Musk's face superimposed on the bewildered expression of a bull facing a matador.
Meanwhile, amidst the digital dustup, the silence from Elon Musk was deafening. Days turned into weeks, and Jagdish's tweets grew increasingly desperate. "#CowardiceInSpace #Where'sYourCarromGameElon?" he raged in a since-deleted tweet (possibly out of fear of offending potential sponsors in the spacefaring industry).
Finally, a response arrived!But not from the man himself. A terse email, signed only by "Elon Musk's Extremely Busy Personal Assistant (Please Hold), " politely declined the challenge. It cited "scheduling conflicts" and "ongoing deep-space carrom research initiatives" as reasons for Musk's unavailability.
The internet, however, wasn't buying it. Conspiracy theories swirled. Was Musk afraid of being trounced by a mere javelin thrower?Did he have a secret carrom-playing nemesis he was too embarrassed to face in public?
Jagdish, however, remained undeterred. In a dramatic display, he staged a public carrom match against a life-sized cardboard cutout of Elon Musk. The crowd roared as Jagdish dominated the game, flicking carrom pieces across the board with the same ease he displayed with his javelin.
Whether this will be enough to lure Musk out of hiding remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure:the world now knows that Jagdish Jaiswal isn't just a champion javelin thrower, he's also a master of the carrom board. . . and social media. Perhaps a lucrative carrom board sponsorship deal is in the offing after all. As for Elon Musk, well, maybe he should stick to rocketing cars into space and leave the carrom board to the champions.