This Indian life by Shoba Narayan: The life and death of a WhatsApp group
When forwards lead to fulmination, it’s soon time to say goodbye
Last time, I wrote about the irrational exuberance that accompanies a newly-created WhatsApp group. Well, this is about the turning point, which happened thus in my “Jawahar Bal Vidyalaya,” group. It came in the form of a terse message that said:
“@ravindersingh, as one of the admins of the group, I have to tell you that these incessant forwards of WhatsApp messages and videos is not allowed in this group. It takes up too much space. Plus we have seen these messages elsewhere.”
Uncle Ravinder, who was the octogenarian father of my Class V teacher, Jitender, responded to the admin’s message by forwarding three more videos: of a guy called Wilbur Sargunaraj showing foreigners how to use an Indian toilet (why was uncle obsessed with underwear and toilets?), one of what looked like a Chinese Barbie doll with perky boobs flying through Bhatinda, and the third of a store where lungi-clad men were mixing what looked like cement with milk powder. The admin, whose moniker was @kritibenmistri responded with a sterner version of the same message along with the admonition, “@ravindersingh – irrelevant forwards may be good for retired folks without work, but please spare us the double or triple whammy.”
