No literate member of the human species has ever been spared an exclusive membership in the billions of WhatsApp groups that orbit around planet Earth. Even the senior members of the tribe would be enrolled in the main and flourishing sub-sects of the clan groups. Waking up to a good morning quote with a bright sunrise or ending the day with a goodnight quote with a teddy bear coaxing you to close your eyes and call it a day has become the universal code for every group’s smooth functioning. How the hours in between are tackled and the nature of the topics that are debated depend on the purpose laid out for the formation of the collective in the first place.
Family groups, for instance, are a collection of antonyms in human form. There are the elderly patriarchs and matriarchs of the dynasty who just can’t get enough of the power they can continue to wield in their twilight years with a mere click of a finger, and periodically forward mind-numbing jokes. Then there are those eternally-in-pilgrimage mode aunties who consider their spiritual and religious posts as the gospel of salvation for the kin. The freshly settled ones bombard the group with photographs of their new car from every angle, the Bali holiday, and that handshake of appreciation from the big boss in the office headquarters. The already settled down and worn out ones, drudging towards retirement consistently share snapshots of the calories they have burned and the steps they have walked per day, as if life’s every moment has to be measured to be meaningful. Amidst all this, the younger lot of cousins form their own groups to giggle at all this and to make their own travel plans together.
Office groups are no different. School and college groups are by far the most fragile, as members have mostly taken diverse paths ever since they bid farewell to their student days. To reconnect after years and co-exist in a virtual space takes immense patience — to adjust to new avatars of those you’ve shared your carefree childhood and adolescent years with.
That said, one may wonder if there can ever be WhatsApp groups for artists. Artists are notorious for being absolute loners, perfectly content with their solitude and fiercely protective of their individualism. How, then, can they ever be a part of a larger cluster, and what conversations could ever transpire?
Well, artists, too, have groups they belong to. Art, politics, the environment, social issues, and all other topics that affect life are analysed with the ultimate goal of collectively sharing concerns and often, finding ways to address those concerns too. Debates are thrown around, tempers do rise, but in the end, there lies the satisfaction of having engaged in a constructive process that leaves one to only accept what fits. Art may be a solitary pursuit, but a virtual grouping of this nature helps artists engage with the world and fosters an openness to divergent ideas. Silence may be the soul’s best friend, but art needs the hum of dialogues too!