TO SEE MUST BE TO BELIEVE

There are some who believe everything they see in a photo or video must be true - not realising how ridiculously easy it has become to doctor visuals. One need not even know how to use photo editing tools - so many online tools with simple user interfaces do it for free. I've observed even shoddily edited pictures are sufficient to fool gullible people.

To test this, I circulated this picture in a few of my Whatsapp groups a while ago, with the caption "Rare picture of Shivaji Rao Gaekwad with Mahatma Gandhi in the latter's last few days" - and more than a forgivable number of people believed it was genuine. A few exclaimed they didn't realise Rajinikanth was "that old". When I told them the truth, I got back a few "grr" emoticons. And a few more "I knew it" responses.

And within the next 30 minutes, someone forwarded a message about a RARE SEVEN-HEADED SNAKE!!! Accompanied by a *gasp* REAL PHOTOGRAPH!