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28 March 2024

Naomi Campbell's Nobel blunder: Malala to 'Malaria'; Bollywood adds 'Masala'

Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai poses for a photograph after addressing the media in Birmingham, central England on October 10, 2014. The Nobel Peace Prize went Friday to 17-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai and India's Kailash Satyarthi for their work promoting children's rights. the award and dedicated the award to the "voiceless". "This award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard," she said. (AFP)

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By Bindu Rai

What’s in a name you ask? A lot in fact when the model speller is a certain darling of the fashion runways, reaching out to a globally lauded Nobel Peace Prize winner over one of the world’s largest social media platform.
 
And then has a spellcheck #fail.
 
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, who is also best known for ramping up  column inches in the gossip pages for her notorious temper meltdowns, took to Instagram on October 11 to congratulate 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai on her Nobel Peace Prize win.
 
Except the message gave the young Pakistani activist ‘Malaria’ instead.
 
Campbell’s well-meaning post simply read: “Congratulations malaria on your #noblepeaceprize #2014 #Respect #joy #ithalljuststarted.”
 
If that wasn’t enough to have the doctors around the globe in a tizzy, Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, also found his name ‘Campbell-ed’, when the British supermodel referred to him as ‘noble’ instead.
 
Campbell reportedly blamed her iPhone for autocorrecting the spelling.
 
Naturally, keeping up with the spirit of social media memes, the comments that came were swift and stinging sharply as a mosquito bite.
 
British comedian Joe Lycett tweeted: “Me and Naomi Campbell both big Instagram fans of Malaria Yousafzai.”
 
Suzanne Azzo tweeted: “Malaria is now trending in London. Naomi Campbell is going to start a mosquito-related panic.”
 
However, Campbell wasn’t the only one in a spellcheck spot over social media, with Bollywood’s Jackky Bhagnani spicing up the concoction with his own interpretation of Malala.
 
The ‘Youngistaan’ actor, who stated his speech in the film was inspired by the young Pakistanti, tweeted: “Such good news to hear about masala and the noble peace price . My speech In #youngistaan was inspired by her!!”
 
Clearly, old Alfie wasn’t spared either in this case.
 
The comments were just as spicy in the aftermath, with Aniruddha Guha retweeting Bhagnani, adding: “Sponsored by MDH [popular Indian spice brand].
 
Sohini said: “Youth icon @jackkybhagnani pays a masala-dar tribute to the latest "Noble" Prize awardee!”
 
This guy, zabardasti wrote: “People actually read Jackky Bhagnani’s tweets!”
 
As the world’s youngest Nobel prize winner, Malala came into the limelight as schoolgirl after being shot by the Taliban in her native north-west Pakistan after courageously campaigning for education for women.
 
She and Campbell have incidentally worked together on a social media campaign in the past to rescue girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria.