WHATSAPP—individual messages and especially groups—has not been much of a feel-good place for some years now. It was just in those initial days of euphoria that it had some charm, when it helped us connect with each other like never before, across continents, across years of separation, all for free. That charm had long faded into shades of the toxic and the humdrum. But in the last few days, it has turned into something else. It brings on a shudder of trepidation like war-time sirens would at one time. It wraps you in a miasma of foreboding, a dank fog that keeps thickening. You only hear gasps for help, and almost inevitably, the news of what follows, death.
Death has never seemed so wanton, so commonplace before. Charging at you from all directions like Yama’s mount, infinitely multiplied into whole rampaging herds. Not a day goes by without being in an aspect of condolence and grief—for those close to you, ever more every day, and for those so far, to whom you feel so near … lakhs getting added to that list everyday.
This story is from the April 23, 2021 edition of The Morning Standard.
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This story is from the April 23, 2021 edition of The Morning Standard.
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