The WhatsApp uncle was sitting at the breakfast table dreamily apprising the fare laid out.
Three steaming hot idlis sat in a casserole , a smaller container with sambhar and a bowl of chutney. He could see the quintessential jars for ghee and gingelly oil just within his arms reach .
With one eye on the mobile phone he helped himself to both , the breakfast and the morning messages..
There were the usual goodmorning messages and the evergreen forwards some of them on their third or fourth rounds marked with ” forwarded many times ” on top.
Not that he read these messages but he would certainly be woefully dejected if the numbers decreased.
Messages were the sign of life in the group. Who wants to be part of a message-less group or an admin only group ?
He was just skimming over who all were active; the messengers rather than the messages.
Once in a while , he tapped that little curved arrow pushing some messages into his other groups to show he too was active.
There was the usual quota of HBD, 🙏,🤣🤣 and the Om Shanti. Rolling on the Floor Laughing was his favourite smilie though it would have been decades since he could sit on the floor, leave alone roll.
He was a true stoic, as his facial expressions hardly gave any hint of the kind of messages he was addressing.
All was well and God was in heaven till it happened . For whatever reason , that day, he felt like having one more idli than his usual quota of three.
His attention , which was 75% on the phone became 100% as his plate got empty.
He had got used to hollering for help into a group for anything like ” why is my pension not credited as yet ? ” Or ” which is the nearest hotel or hospital? “
WhatsApp ethics forbid you to use the wrong group for the right demand, but then he had a group for every issue. (People get upset for ‘ cluttering’ any one group ). Most people had a clutter of groups to cater for all contingencies.
His better half was in her own groups attending to quotes for positive vibes to start the day , doing her morning roll call of friends, followers and likers.
Scrolling through his myriad groups he stopped at the family group.
Suddenly a bright idea dawned.
He messaged
‘ hw bout nother idli ?! ‘ he posted.
He had become an expert at typing with his hand left but then the thick fingers and the autocorrect had their own minds.
So the message landed on his health cover group, somewhat corrupted.
As it happens , there were others like him waiting for some juicy messages.
Reactions followed…
???
🤔
Why only one idli ?!
Admin to delete please 
Not all are killjoys really.
The science inclined …
Why do you have idlis ? It’s all carbs and hardly any protein..
The nationalist
You brown sepoys always deride desi food.
The Tamil Nationalist…
You northies can never appreciate the kind of perfect food that idli is .. soaked , ground, fermented , steamed …..bla bla …
Some healthy and not so healthy discussion follows on idli as a breakfast dish ..
- By now , having warmed up to a nice, spicy chat, nobody asks why is someone asking for an idli in this group or in any other group for that matter..
Meanwhile the uncle who initiated this conversation, inadvertently, was sipping a hot cup of filter coffee wondering why his family groups were unusually quiet that day…