What’s up guys?

Family group, Schoolmates group, College group, Office group, Society group, Neighborhood group, Common interest group ……………. the list is endless. All of us are part of or rather trapped in multiple groups. I’m talking about that ‘magnificent addiction’, the mobile application called Whatsapp.

This application has changed our social behaviour inside out, in more ways than one. Let me explain how: If you bump into your next-door neighbour with whom you are not too close, you may look the other way or at  best give a sheepish smile of recognition. In Whatsapp however you send ‘Good morning’ messages to all and sundry on  a regular basis. Whatever message comes in one group gets forwarded across groups. Pictures and videos clog your mobile phones. Messages seeking to trace out a missing child go round and round on Whatsapp, much after the child had been found and even grown up. Then comes the Birthday wish. A wishes B in the group and all other group members convey their wishes to B without even verifying if it is his birthday or not.There was this incident when in a group I am part of, one member had his birthday while another had lost a family member. Birthday wishes and condolences got mixed up over some time before normalcy was brought in by the Administrator.

Allow me to narrate the upheavals in the last 24 hours in one of the Whatsapp group I am a member of. This group was originally formed as a welfare group of concerned, active citizens who would work towards maintaining/improving the infrastructure and civic conditions in our neighborhood  —  a local self-help group. As happens with most groups, over a period of time, focus on the prime objective got diluted and members started forwarding messages and airing their views on all matters not directly connected with the improvement of our neighborhood. Again, as is common in most groups, there were some members who were silent observers or ‘sleeper cells’ while a few always attempted to hog the headlines. In this group, I was one of the ‘sleeper cells’. How the sleeper cell got activated is the story.

One of the founder-members of this group, (who himself had laid down the ground-rules) posted in the group something about how wrong the anti-CAA agitations were and why foreign infiltrators on Indian soil were to be avoided. No doubt, it was needless but there had been umpteen posts on irrelevant matters and some active criticism of the ruling party by other members of the group, but there were no arguments/debates or counters. This message of yesterday seemed to have touched a raw nerve. Another member questioned the actions of this gentleman in spreading religious and political messages and not doing anything for the society. The member also added that she would leave the group if the ‘offending’ gentleman remained. 

None came out in support of the person who had posted this message  and rightly so because this was not the right forum for this message( BTW it was not offensive in any sense, it was his view which he had expressed quite decently). Two members , let’s call them Bunty and Daboo jumped to the defence of the ‘aggrieved lady member’ claiming that without her, the entire neighborhood would be shrouded in darkness and the ‘offending gentleman’ had to reign in his tongue and start acting for the common good. Offending gentleman hit back highlighting the laziness and idle talk of Bunty,  Meanwhile, Daboo posted a message saying that if the aggrieved lady complained to the police, Mr.Offending gentleman as also the Group Administrator could be in serious trouble.

Group Administrator hit the panic button and gave administrative rights to each and every member immediately and stated so in the group. This was short-lived. The wily Bunty using his newly-obtained administrator’s rights withdrew the rights of all other members including the sole original administrator and became the Group Administrator himself. He had hijacked the entire group. Meanwhile, the ‘ aggrieved member’ left the group. Bunty & Daboo posted that they were trying to convince her off-line to rejoin. They also made an appeal that ‘Offending gentleman’ should leave the group. Now ‘offending gentleman’ wrote a long, pained message to the group  apologizing for his post which he said was without malice towards any individual or community and claiming that the group had outlived its utility and he was leaving the group. He left.

The sleeper-cell, yours truly got into the act and blasted one and all with a powerful message. I pointed out that the group archives show that most of the messages posted by different group members were in no way connected to the neighborhood and some even expressed their political likes and dislikes, yet the other members were silent. What was it about this post that had some members jumping up and down? It was an exact repeat of Indian politics. I added that it was a Game of Thrones and Bunty had no business to hijack the group. The group itself had to be disbanded as it was not doing what it initially set out to do.

Stunned silence! After an hour, two members came out in my support and agreed that both parties were to be blamed and both were important pillars of this group and we should work together. I said, pillars are gone, we can stand without them and do what is expected of us. Daboo posted that the offending gentleman had taken his comment personally. I am just waiting for that Bunty to come clean ……. or else the sleeper-cell would again be activated tomorrow.