Email wars seem to break out every now and then on my B school’s alumni network – like seasonal cold and cough outbreak! Anytime I login to the account early in the morning and see 20+ mails, I open the mailbox with apprehension and quite a bit of resignation.

The latest bout seems to have been sparked off by a forwarded email from one of the members. This email contained a petition by some person to keep the mobiles on Tata Indicom, Reliance and Airtel switched off for a day in protest of the recent support voiced by the owners of these businesses to the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

Now, I must confess that I am not a fan of Mr. Modi either – and this despite recently coming across an article in Mint about how the Gujarat government’s efforts in providing water and power to the villages is prompting more and more villagers opting to stay there rather than migrate to the cities. Though I admire Modi for his work and wish other CMs would take a leaf out of his book, I would shudder to see him as the PM of this country.

But coming back to my alumni network, I believe a sane – some would call it spineless – action would have been to forward the mail to some friends and also to decide whether to keep the phone switched off or not. In short, a highly individual decision! Instead, people started firing off emails in support of and against the mail. After a while, as usual, there were mails asking everyone to stop such emails. And finally, there were a scattered emails calling on the hapless admin to do something so this won’t happen again!

Now there is a lull – except for the occasional mails on apartments for rent, cars for sale, job posts, resumes of friends and requests for information. Another 2 weeks of this and I would begin to wonder where the next storm will come from. But till then I am determined to enjoy this peace! :-)