A Reason for Treason.

The morning sounds of a typical southern house was on.

Mallamma making coffee,  her husband who in a rural set up would have been called “Aiyaa’ (these days it was “Saar ” or “Sirji” depending on where he was stationed, or where his children were stationed) going through “The Hindu”. Now Mallamma was very diligent in dispensing her responsibility. All through Aiyyappa’s service, he was in the defence though they had domestic help, actually they were allotted a family Dhaniram who was a driver and handy man of sorts while wife Guni helped in house, Mallamma brewed the morning coffee herself.

Usually by the time Col. And Mrs. Korangrabatti sipped their first coffee in silence, the newspaper boy came with the newspaper, then the family woke up one by one and the day began at Korangrabatti.

Today it was the peaceful few minutes of coffee sipping, Aiyaa flipping through his paper peacefully, and Mallamma, was reflecting her daughter-in-law was not up yet. Somewhere deep within her Mallamma felt her son marrying a “civilian” was not right.  Not that her daughter-in-law was ….

But she did not belong. Of course she had an engineering degree from KREC no matter what she had not been to IIT, after all people who did not get IIT went to the regional colleges. While her son did medicine from AFMC. Then she refused to appear defence exams, again a sacrilege, while Mallarme’s daughter had gone into civil services and married her batch mate, a south Indian mind you.  The Korangrabatti household was a fusion of southern ethos blended with the central government culture. Though the language was of course judicious mix of Tulu and English.

the household was slowly disembarking from Noddyland and coming to the zoombieland, it would take that shot of Mallarme’s coffee for the conscious mind to be ignited, unlike the days of yore, the newspaper was no more the coffee companion each one would be flipping through their mobiles, while Mallamma looked at the this new culture with disapproval,

“shit!”

Mallamma looked up to the voice that used the word.,”jaado avu,” Mallamme’s voice was very reprimanding, people did not swear early in the morning and definitely not in the presence of elders.  “ancha pannare balli, it’s not decent”

But 15yr. Old Aniket was no mood to obey her, not only was his mobile new, and he was feeling very adult about sipping the coffee and scrolling his message, this particular message had kicked up the nascent  testosterone.

“ajja, ajji, just look at this message,”

“read aloud’ demanded his grandfather,

“no, it is more effective when you read it, I’ll forward it”

The message read

From tomorrow onwards there are new communication regulations.

उद्यापासून संभाषणासाठी नवीन नियम लागू होत आहेत.

All calls are recorded

सर्व तोंडी संभाषण रेकॉर्ड केले जाईल.

All phone call recordings saved

सर्व फोनवरचे संभाषण रेकॉर्ड केले जाईल.

WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, All social media and forums will be monitored

व्हॅट्सऍप. ट्विटर, फेसबुकवर, सर्व सोशिअल मीडिया आणि फॉर्म्स वर लक्ष ठेवले जाईल.

Inform those who do not know.

सर्वांना याबाबत कळवा.

Your devices are connected to ministry systems.

तुमचे डिव्हाईस (फोन, मोबाईल, लॅपटॉप, कॉम्पुटर) मिनिस्ट्री शी जोडले आहेत.

Take care not to send unnecessary messages

अनावश्यक मेसेजेस न पाठवण्याची काळजी घ्या.

Inform your children, Relatives and friends about this to take care

आपल्या मुलांना, नातेवाईकांना, मित्रांना याबाबत काळजी घेण्याची सूचना करा.

​​Don’t forward any posts or videos etc., you receive  regarding politics/present situation about Government/PM etc.​​ Writing or forwarding any msg on any political & religious debate is an offence now….arrest without warrant…

राजकारण, शासन, मंत्रीवर्ग, प्रधानमंत्री, राष्ट्रपती, किंवा सद्यस्थिती बाबतची कोणतीही पोस्ट, ऑडिओ, व्हिडीओ फॉरवर्ड / पोस्ट करू नका. कोणत्याही अशो पोस्ट, चर्चा हा गुन्हा आहे आणि त्यासाठी अजामीन पकड वॉरंट सांगितले आहे.

Police have put out a notification termed ..Cyber Crime … and action will be taken…just don’t delete …

पोलिसांनी याबाबत सूचना सायबर सेलला योग्य त्या कारवाईसाठी सूचना दिल्या आहेत. हि सूचना त्यातलीच एक आहे.

This is very serious, plz let it be known to all our groups and individual members as group admin can b in deep trouble.

हे खूप गंभीर आहे, सर्व ग्रुप्स, वैयक्तिक मित्रांना आणि ग्रुपच्या ऍडमिनला यातून भयंकर त्रास होऊ शकतो.

Take care not to send unnecessary messages. Inform everyone about this to take care.

त्यासाठी योग्य ती सारी काळजी घ्यावी.

Please share it; it’s very much true. Groups please be careful.

पुनः विनंती सर्वांना, ग्रुपला याबाबत कळवा.

“holy Christ I should send it to my friends”

“wait, don’t rush” stopped Mallamma,”use your brains, it will improve its quality, do you think the government has no better work to do”

Before Aniket could retort,

“This is sent by some mischief maker” Aiyya passed his decree, “cowards, they do not have the courage to go to the front, or the brains to be part of administration. All that they can do is hide behind a screen name and send stupid messages. Which others with even less brains believe.”

“what is the conversation, about’ asked Capt. Karangrabatti joining in as he poured his coffee,

“rubbish,” retorted Capt. Karangrabatti, reading the forward on his nephew’s device.

“captain saab, have a look at this,”  that was Capt. Karangrabatti’s non-civil or defence service wife. Never mind she worked in the R&D cell of a renowned software company, she did not have the services label.

“this is serious,”

“what is ” asked Aiyya and Mallamma in unison,

“Dhruv refuses to say Bharatmata ki Jai, the junior officer has asked for an informal meeting before taking further action.”

“where did we go wrong?” wondered grandfather Col.Karangrabatti.

“This comes from having a civilian mother educated in a convent” was Mallarme’s retort.

Before the war could go full on, Capt. Karangrabatti said, “we’ll talk about it later, it is 8.30 now we need to meet the Junior officer at 9.30.”

It was 9.30 sharp, when Capt.Karangrabatti and his wife faced the Junior Officer, who flashed her big eyes at them and said, “He refuses to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai and he is the group captain.”

very gently his mother asked, ”You can tell us the truth, what is the problem Dhruv, we are not going to punish you.”

“How can I say Bharat Mata Ki jai” asked  group captain Dhruv, with eyes beautiful eyes open, he was upset, almost in tears…

“why not ”persisted his mom,

“I should say Bharat Papa is jai, papa’s name is Bharat not yours.” Now one cannot refute the profoundness of the 5yr. Olds logic.