From Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to Sundar Pichai ⁠— here’s Business Insider’s new year roast of the world’s rich and famous

If the Chairman of the Mahindra Group ⁠— with a net worth of nearly $2 billion as per Forbes ⁠and interests ranging from sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and tractors to financial services ⁠— were to dance at a wedding, what song would he chose? Here’s a suggestion.

2021 has been a sleepless year for cryptocurrency fans in India waking up in the middle of the night because halfway across the world, there was a man who could change their fortunes with just one tweet. That man is Tesla’s top boss Elon Musk and we hope he’s “tied up” tonight and won’t ruin any new celebrations with his obsessive tweeting.

Yes, Paytm, Zomato and Nykaa are through with their public issues. But some of the other marquee names like OYO, Delhivery and Mobikwik are ready to get listed in the stock market. But we hope that tonight, at least for one night, OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal, Mobikwik’s Upasana Taku and even the chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) are able to chill and not worry about the IPO.

Mark Zuckerberg can’t get enough of telling people how much he loves India. After all, it’s one of the biggest markets for the social media platforms he owns i.e., Facebook, Instagram and the messaging service Whatsapp. So, even if he may have picked up some Hindi, the man can be expected to obsess over his next big leap: Meta.

Just because we are proud of our homegrown Sundar Pichai making it to the top of the food chain at the one of the biggest companies in the world, it doesn’t mean we will forget that Google is watching us every step of the way. The iconic song from The Police, “Every breath you take,” takes on a different meaning if we imagine any of our tech giants singing it.

There was a time when being a philosopher required years of scholarship, along with new ideas and rigorous research. In the age of social media, all you need is a startup that can raise a few millions, and lose them slowly until the next round of fundraising.

While Kunal Shah ⁠— who has built his fintech startup CRED to be a $4.01 billion venture ⁠— waits for profits, he has aced the game of sharing all his gyan (Hindi word for wisdom) on social media without telling us much about what the company is up to.

On the other hand, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a spiritual leader whose primary job is to preach his wisdom, is reportedly making tons of money for his organisation, the Isha Foundation.

The famous rivalry between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos continued in 2021 and we really hope they don’t become friends in 2022. Watching them exchange barbs on social media is just priceless!

Amid the celebratory mood entering into 2022, we all know that Omicron cases are rising around the world and that a third wave is impending in places where it hasn’t started already. While the pressure is on the public to behave themselves, maintain social distance and follow COVID-19 protocols, we hope that our leaders will lead us by example and not call for large, or even small, election rallies allowing the virus to spread and mutate.

The world has been polarised on many counts, for a few years now. While it is tough to say if we made any progress in 2021, towards understanding those we disagree with, it is fair to say we still have a long way to go down that path of empathy and consensus.

This toon intends to remind us that healthy scepticism, in whatever we may want to believe in, may be a good first step.

Featured above is actor Kamal Haasan, arguably India’s most-famous atheist, and Canadian psychologist and academic Jordan Peterson, who bats for the believers in a spirited fashion.