What troubles me today is watching highly educated uncles and aunties forwarding messages with the same enthusiasm with which they once forwarded marriage proposals and birthday greetings for their children.
Take for example the recent message doing its grand parade on WhatsApp. It shows our foreign minister apparently shouting at a UN official and telling him to behave because he was only a secretary and not a king. The uncles and aunties who received it were thrilled. They clapped. They pumped their fists in the air. Some stood up from their sofas with patriotic tears and almost saluted the television. They felt India was finally telling the world to shut up.
Sadly, there is only one small problem. There is no authentication that It ever happened.
But the video continues to travel across the country like a tourist on cheap airline tickets.
And who is forwarding it? Educated and intelligent people who once worshipped newsprint. They belong to a generation raised on newspapers run by honest editors. They belong to a world where Doordarshan news told them exactly what happened without a fellow whose name rhymes with ‘Doorknob’ yelling and screaming in the background.
They never learnt to doubt. Their minds were trained to believe.
Now they are the lost uncle and aunty generation.
They sit at home wearing reading glasses, looking wise and dignified, and forward every message that arrives decorated with patriotic music and national flags.
Just add a drumroll and they will believe even that India has just built a rocket that flies on milk and returns powered by turmeric water. Their children try to correct them, but the uncles and aunties say in stern voices ‘that children must respect elders.’ Even if the elders are confidently forwarding nonsense.
Picture a modern Indian living room. Father forwards a video claiming that the whole United Nations stood up and clapped for India for five minutes and twenty- three seconds. Mother proudly forwards a voice note claiming the Prime Minister of England has personally requested to be an Indian citizen. The children quietly Google the truth and return with fact checking links. Then silence falls like a curtain. The parents stare at their phones. The children stare at the ceiling. Even the family dog looks embarrassed.
And yet these same uncles and aunties once taught us to think wisely. Now their thumbs move faster than their minds. If WhatsApp had a national award they would win gold, silver, and bronze.
So dear uncles and respected aunties, this is a gentle request. Before you forward a message, read it twice. Then ask your children. If they smile sadly, do not send it.
India does not need senseless forwards. India needs sharper minds. And there are many who are poor and illiterate, or less educated who believe what you forward. So, on the day you uncles and aunties stop forwarding fake news and start forwarding wisdom, our nation will truly rise…!