The theme for the year’s Google trends was celebrating heroes from all walks of life.
Varthaman rose to prominence when his aircraft was gunned down by Pakistan during an aerial dogfight in 2019. Varthaman, who went on to be awarded the Vir Chakra, was held captive by the Pakistan military before finally being released. His name topped the search list between February 24 and March 2 on Google.
The person who came second on the list is veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar, whose name was the top search from November 10 to November 16. The singer had fallen severely ill and was hospitalised during this period.
Following Yuvraj Singh’s retirement from international cricket on June 10, 2019, he became the top search on Google between June 5 and June 15. He ranked third on the list.
Mathematician Anand Kumar, whose life and work was the inspiration for Hrithik Roshan’s film Super 30, ranked fourth in the list.
The fifth position went to Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal who trended in January following the success of the war drama Uri, which recounted the 2015 surgical strike by India.
The top ten were rounded off by Team India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, viral internet star Ranu Mondal, debutante actor Tara Sutaria, television actor Siddharth Shukla and actress Koena Mitra.
Apart from personalities, Cricket World Cup was the most searched word on the overall trends, while Lok Sabha Elections and Chandrayaan 2 ranked second and third. The Shahid Kapoor-starrer Kabir Singh came in at number 4, having trended in the last week of July, while Avengers: Endgame rounded off the top 5 in overall trends.
Prasanta Patnaik