Paul, the "psychic octopus", won praise and adulation from Indian celebrities today for his dream run of predictions at the World Cup Football after correctly prognosticating a Spanish victory in the finals. And there was a suggestion--christen the two-year old octopus as "St Paul of Football."
"Paulie Baba zindabad!! Didn't kick a single ball and lifted World Cup," Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan said on his Twitter feed just a couple of days after he slammed the hype over the now famous clairvoyant eight-legged cephalopod in Germany who has become a household name in India like elsewhere in the world.
Former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor tried to draw a comparison between Paul and the Indian astrologers and hailed the two-year old common octopus living in a tank at a Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen in Germany. "Hats off to Pablo the Octopus. No Indian astrologer has yet managed a 100 per cent track record like him," Tharoor tweeted, appearing to endorse the powers of Paul. Immediately after Spain won, Bollywood stars began tweeting about Paul.
The "oracle octopus," who is famous for his ability to correctly predict the winner of matches in which the German national soccer team is playing 9 out of 10 times, proved right seven times in a row at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after the Spanish victory against Netherlands last night in an epic final.
Actor-Director Shekar Kapoor said "christen him St Paul of Football. After all he can bless 8 ppl at the same time.
"Paul the Octopus has been offered a multi million job as hedge fund manager. They have applied for his work permit," he said.
Abhishek Bachchan in his tweet wondered who would have thought that even in the 21st century an octopus would be able to cast a cloud of doubt over the mighty Germans. "Guess it was just Spain's night! God help us all now, here come the octopus interviews. Dying to see what the news channels do with it.... Bachchan junior added.
Actor Siddarth tweeted "Octopus Paul I bow my head to you."
Aamir Khan posted on his Twitter page, "Ok. I back Spain. This time I'm on the same side as Paul. Lets see if hs ability 2 predict correctly is strong, or my ability 2 predict wrong!" Once Spain defeated Holland, Aamir added, "Dear Paul, aap purush nahi... Octopus ho."
Riteish Deshmukh had his own funny line to add, "Yeaaaaahhhhhhhh OCTOPUS WON - POPAT KA POPAT HO GAYA," referring to the parrot that had predicted that Holland would win.
Karan Johar then said, "Ok!! Octopus baba rules!! Welcome the new astrologer of the world!!"
Arshad Warsi added: Witnessed one of the most aggressive match last night... Well deserved victory for Spain... Paul Baba ki jai ho..
And Bollywood s ladies were in on the fun too. Shilpa Shetty posted on her Twitter page, "Spain won yay! Trusted Paul (the octopus) so supported them And won a bet!!...ha ha ha.."
And Bipasha Basu took the time to praise her man John Abraham. "Why do I need to know Paul's predictions? I have John the octopus! He predicted rt from d start Spain would win. They did! Yay!".
Sameera Reddy tweeted, "Western societies accuse us of being superstitious, and then believe an octopus!" while actor Rahul Khanna, a Germany supporter, wrote: "If the Germans ordered calamari from room service last night, it would have been a clear demonstration of squid pro quo."
Despite all the hype over Paul who has grapped global attention, there is however no evidence to support or even suggest that an Octopus has intelligence to predict something.
Last week, Bachchan had said, "The surprise of the predictions of the Octopus Paul have brought superstition right onto the front pages... This is quite amazing and ridiculous at the same time, Bachchan wrote on his blog. PTI
