An Indian teenager was accused of emotional blackmail after going on a hunger strike for three days to pressure his poor mother into buying him an iPhone.

A short video shot by a smartphone shop owner in India went viral last week for featuring a teenage boy who confessed to going on a hunger strike for three days to convince his mother to buy him a new iPhone. The woman, who reportedly makes a living by selling flowers outside a temple, is also featured in the video and has a facial expression that pretty much says everything about her inner struggle. Shared by Indian journalist Abhishek on X (formerly Twitter), the video has been viewed over a million times and has sparked a heated debate about gadgets as a status symbol and the entitlement of younger generations.

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Going on a hunger strike doesn’t sound like the most effective way to win back lost love, but it worked in the case of one Indian man who camped outside his ex-girlfriend’s home and refused to eat until she agreed to marry him.

Ananta Burman, a young man from India’s West Bengal region had been in a stable relationship for eight years, but recently, his girlfriend, Lipika, simply cut off all communication, refusing to answer his phone calls and WhatsApp messages, as well as blocking him on social media. Ananta figured that something was wrong, so he did some digging and learned that Lipika’s family had agreed to marry her off to another man. Realizing that he had little time before he lost Lipika forever, the young man decided he had to do something extreme to get her back. So on Sunday he camped out the girl’s house in Dhupguri and went on a hunger strike.

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