Predicting Chetan Bhagat's next book title: the aftermath

The news made its way to my brains in the same way USB drives refuse to made their ways into the respective ports: Chetan Bhagat himself, no less, had tweeted my previous blog post. Here is proof:

Seriously geeky. Polynomial models to predict the number in Chetan Bhagat's upcoming book titles. Respect: http://t.co/Cf05qu2HQh …
— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) August 6, 2014

See? See? I did not lie.

There are three questions that came to my mind the moment I came across the tweet:
1. Why does he refer to himself in the third person?
2. Why is he respectful to me in his tweet?
3. Why does he find the post seriously geeky?
Let us find out.

1. Why does Mr Bhagat refer to himself in the third person?

Indeed, why? He could have easily tweeted "polynomial models to predict the number in my upcoming book titles". Here is why:

Mr Bhagat is actually Julius Caesar. As we have seen from William Shakespeare's epic (which was spoofed brilliantly by René Goscinny) centuries later, Caesar had developed the rather unusual habit of referring to himself in the third person.

Thus, if he is stabbed, do not be surprised if his immediate reaction is "Et tu, cute?"

PS: I will not get many chances to pay my homage to three legends in one go. Here is to Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare, and René Goscinny — men who have, and will continue to stand the test of time — from The Mansions of the Gods. 

2. Why is he respectful to me in his tweet?

This one was tricky. Indeed, there was no valid reason for him to shower respect on me. He is a living legend, while I am a mere mortal — a blogger languishing in obscurity.

Why me, Mr Bhagat? Is it because you are humble? You are an IITian, which means that you could fit polynomials just like that (this is when I snapped my fingers).

I thought and thought hard: what message was he trying to send across?

Then it hit me, and hit me as hard as an ONIDA TV hits a hummingbird when the ONIDA TV flies and the hummingbird doesn't. You get the point.

Respect is, obviously, an anagram for sceptre. A sceptre demands respect. Of course, being Julius Caesar — being the undisputed king of Indian English literature — commands respect and demands a sceptre. That was the message he was trying to send across.

3. Why does he find the post seriously geeky?

It takes some average knowledge of polynomial-fitting and Excel tricks to do what I was doing. What was "seriously geeky" about it?

Was he paying respect to me? As we have found out, that is not the case; it was, of course, a reference to the post. Had I screwed up somewhere?

Then I recalled how Matthew Inman — creator of The Oatmeal had once defined geeks:

In other words, geeky = not screwing. Hence, by calling my post "seriously geeky" (I promise this is is the first time I have come across those two words together) he had actually been cryptic, complimenting that I had not screwed up with my calculations.

I'm honoured, Mr Bhagat. You have touched another soul and have set it free. You veni, vidi, vici (yes, I know I am speaking in first person, but that is how good my Latin is).