With the average attention span rapidly shrinking, all manner of things from plays and dance performances to books and public talks are being cut to size for the TikTok generation. The mantra in newspapers and television channels is ‘keep it short and snappy’.

The renowned TED Talks are the latest casualty of this trend to shrink everything to bare bones. Elif Shafak, the award-winning British-Turkish novelist, had a taste of this when, while preparing for her second TED Talk, she was told to keep it to 13 minutes, whereas for her debut talk a decade ago, the limit was 19 minutes.

“I asked why the difference and they said, ‘Well, the world’s average attention span has shrunk’,” she said at the Hay Literary Festival. “That made me really sad. We are incapable of listening to a talk for more than a few minutes.”

This trend is confirmed by a study by King’s College, London, which found that 49 per cent of the public thought their attention span was shorter than it used to be.

Anecdotal evidence points to increasing preference for instant gratification. Ian Rankin, the Scottish crime novelist, said he put big books “at the bottom of [his] reading list”.

Noted academic Jonathan Bate has raised concerns that university students are unable to cope with long-form novels with the “attrition of attention span due to smartphones, six-minute YouTube videos and instant TikTok dopamine hits”. He said when he started teaching, students were able to read three Charles Dickens novels a week. Now, he said, many would struggle to “get through one novel in three weeks”.

How TikTokian!

And now ‘DDLJ–the musical’

The big news in Britain’s desi circles is the premiere of a musical stage adaptation of Aditya Chopra’s Shah Rukh Khan-starring blockbuster Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) to mark its 30th anniversary. It is the longest-running title in Indian cinema, playing continuously in Mumbai since its release in 1995.

The musical — Come Fall in Love–The DDLJ Musical — which had a star-studded UK premiere at Manchester Opera House on 25 May, goes on until 21 June.

There was much excitement when SRK unexpectedly dropped in at its London rehearsals. “Meeting Shah Rukh Khan and having him in the rehearsal room was such an honour. He was so generous with his time and support for the show. Being able to show him some of the iconic scenes that he and Kajol originally established was an incredible feeling and will be a long-lasting memory for me,” said Jena Pandya who is playing Simran (Kajol).

Ashley Day (playing Raj) described it as a “special moment in a way that didn’t need words”.

“Watching everyone take him in, I could feel how meaningful it was. He greeted us all with such love and genuine excitement about what we’ve been building. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to see a project — loved by millions — being reimagined as a musical 30 years later,” he said.

Music composers Vishal and Shekhar hailed it as an “amazingly positive experience for all of us”.

The big response to the show has prompted calls for it to travel to other cities which have large Indian-immigrant populations.

Top Indian-origin barrister in misogyny row

A high-profile Indian-origin barrister has had his fast-tracked career abruptly halted amid allegations of sexual misconduct by three women.

Navjot ‘Jo’ Sidhu, former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association and the Society of Asian Lawyers, was in the running to be the country’s most senior prosecutor but was disbarred after the complaint of one of the three women was upheld.

The allegations have led to calls for a broader inquiry into widespread misogyny in the legal profession with critics calling it a “moment of reckoning”.

A woman referred to as Sienna, who spoke to Channel 4 anonymously for fear of harming her career, said Sidhu first started messaging her on LinkedIn before offering her a temporary job shadowing him during a murder trial.

He was 28 years her senior and the age difference and his influence in the legal profession left her feeling under “extreme pressure”. On the first night, he invited her to work on a case in his hotel room, saying they could discuss confidential details there more easily. But after working on legal arguments until about 10.00 pm, she asked to leave.

“He was trying to persuade me to stay. I kept on saying that I wanted to leave the room… At some point, the lights had turned off, and I ended up on the bed,” she said.

Her complaint was upheld by a bar tribunal. Allegations from two other women — Anneka Jenns and Ella — were dismissed.

A review has found that they were let down by the regulator, Bar Standards Board, according to Channel 4 News. It reportedly describes Sidhu’s behaviour as ‘predatory’ and says his conduct was an ‘open secret’ and senior barristers warned junior women to ‘stay away’ from him.

Jenns said: “We were essentially silenced. We were asked to give undertakings not to speak to anyone.” A lawyer for Sidhu said he would appeal against the upheld complaint.

And, finally, one of the most mispronounced words in English language is ‘pronunciation’ — commonly mispronounced as ‘proNOUNciation’.