What's Best

Her mother entered the room and asked Rashi to switch on her brand new computer so that the former could use it to access her social media account. Rashi, without looking up from the page that she was reading at the moment, asked, ‘Why aren’t you using Krish’s laptop?’ to which she received the reply that the site said it was down at the moment. Rashi sighed and muttered, ‘Wait, I’m studying,’ from behind her course book and shooed Mira out of the room.

It had been adorable when the older woman, now in her fifties, painstakingly learned to use the computer a few months before but her tech-savvy children now found it infuriating at times that she was satisfied to only grasp how to operate her online profile. Like now, for instance. There was no use in explaining to her mother that if the site was down, it would be on all computers.

Her phone pinged suddenly. A notification- someone had Liked her status.

About an hour later, Mira spoke from her daughter’s bedroom doorway, ‘Is your profile working?’ and Rashi returned a distracted ‘yes’. She was so far behind her schedule- she’d reached only page 27. The former entered the room in a flurry now.

‘Switch on your computer right now. My profile is still not opening.’

The demanding tone pricked Rashi. She shouted now, ‘I’m studying! Can’t you wait for sometime?!’

Her mother ignored this aggressive reaction and sat down at the end of the bed. ‘I wrote something about the police yesterday.’

Rashi’s expression changed now. She sat up, got off her bed, which was her usual place to study, and pressed the ‘on’ button.  She knew her mother’s account and password, being the one who set up her profile and drove her towards this new obsession, so she entered it. A new page opened which stated that the site was undergoing some changes to improve the users’ experience. She entered her own account and password and it swiftly opened to her profile.

‘I think they’ve banned your profile temporarily.’

‘Are you sure?’

Rashi stared at the screen and tried to view her mother’s profile from her own account. The screen just had the recognizable blue banner at the top and a blank sheet underneath. Refresh. Same result.

‘What did you write? You were screaming at Krish yesterday for sharing a newspaper clipping about the violence that resulted from the death of that leader… how could you do something stupid like this yourself?’

Mira exited the room. Rashi could hear the different notes from the landline keypad being pressed. Her mother was probably calling her father or brother. She overheard her trying to convince them that she wasn’t paranoid or mistaken. She refuted by saying that Rashi had reached the same conclusion. Rashi graoned. Like that would have helped to convince the men.

She sat on her bed again and picked up her book. Dario Fo. The text blurred in front of her eyes as she imagined the police thumping on their door to arrest her mother. Rashi would scream at them, of course, and throw all the knowledge that she’d learned from watching all those Lawyer Drama TV shows in their faces. Wait, those laws might be different for the US and India. What if they just forced themselves in and didn’t care to show a proper arrest warrant? Her father would save his wife somehow. And Rashi would then protest in the streets against this act of injustice. But then another thought hit her- how many days would this take? Her exams were approaching; she just had two more weeks to prepare. And these internals counted for 25% of the total mark so she couldn’t even miss them! The teachers would sympathise but wouldn't really be able to help.

She shook herself out of this reverie and turned her eyes back to Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.

‘Krish is refusing to take down the posts that he put up,’ said Mira.

‘Mama, what did you write? And where?’

‘You know Suneeta aunty, right?’

‘No, but tell me what happened!’

‘Her purse got snatched recently but it was returned yesterday by someone. It still had her cellphone and other things but the cash was gone. She wrote a post about this online and I commented on it saying that something similar had happened to another friend and she’d later found out that some policemen usually work with these criminals… they distribute the cash amongst them. So I asked her to find out.’

‘Mama, are you kidding me? Why would you write this on a public forum especially with all that’s going on? Two girls got arrested a few days back for protesting…’

‘Can they see my comment and block me?’

‘Yes! Censorship, hello?!’

‘What if something happens with the police?’ Mira genuinely looked worried.

Rashi comforted her by saying, ‘No, no… nothing like that will happen. Everyone is going around criticizing the incidents of the past few days, why will they focus on you? Most likely, some terms you used got on their radar and they’ve temporarily blocked your profile,’ and suddenly something struck her, ‘Wait, do you have that aunty’s number?’

Her mother nodded.

‘Then call her up and ask her to delete your comment. Don’t tell her that this is why you think your profile has been banned; she’ll think you’re crazy. Just tell her that with all the political tension that’s going on, you feel it’s best to keep away from controversial topics right now.’

Mira agreed and walked out of the room, and Rashi could finally focus on her studies and read her course book in peace.