How about a Say No to WhatsApp campaign?

For the longest time I refused to be separated from my BlackBerry and took part in angry debates on BBM versus WhatsApp. People started avoiding me, which was a good sign because it both reduced the flow of forwarded jokes (in the middle of the night or early hours in the morning) on my phone and ensured I slept better. But the day WhatsApp introduced the evil "double blue tick mark" a lot of people who'd left me and my BBM alone, came back into my life, now confident that the debate would not be as harsh as before (BlackBerry too was running into financial trouble by then). Yes, I lauded the BBM (sans the period mark, once used in abbreviations) because it gave me the flexibility to share my BBM pin with people I wished to chat with, unlike WhatsApp, however my real issue with the latter was not their service offered but the missing apostrophe in the name of this messaging app. The mere mention of the same invited uncomfortable stares spelling disbelief and shock over my stupidity quotient. Of course, just a handful "punctuation vigilantes" nodded and sympathised in agreement, and with them I carried the discussion further, "So, if WhatsApp is supposedly a 'cool' take on What's up? then a question mark is missing too!"

Now, to an eye of a member of the self-appointed punctuation police force, two missing marks can mean high blood pressure, amongst other ailments. Lynn Truss, the author of Eats Shoots & Leaves, validates this point. Lynn is not an average stickler for punctuation, which is clear from the fact that she wrote an entire book on the zero tolerance approach to punctuation. No one does that, right? Her dream is to raise punctuation militants, equipped with correction fluid, big pens, stickers cut in a variety of sizes, both plain (for sticking over wanted apostrophes) and coloured (for inserting where apostrophes are needed), tin of paint with a big brush, etc.In her book, she reaches out to many individuals like me, who have a soft heart, especially towards the apostrophe. Her mission is to save the apostrophe and for that she wants the sticklers to unite and raise a voice.

So I've decided to let the stickler in me speak its mind. For instance, I would refuse eating out with people who will ask me to meet them at Haldirams (Haldiram's). But that's later. As of now, I want to launch a social media campaign, Say No to WhatsApp, followed by a candlelight march to gain sympathy for the apostrophe. Later, I'd like to make this protest bigger by taking up the issue of both a missing question mark and space. If the drive gets bigger then we could even question BlackBerry (Two alphabets in capital).

To the cold hearted, the idea may seem ridiculous but I'm not sure that I'm not alone here. I know of editors who bang their head against the keyboard each time they correct an It's to Its, or vice-versa. I also know of men and women who refuse to pee at public toilets because of the boards on the doors: Mens and Womens. I understand the intention here is good and the people painting these boards are not punctuation sticklers, (no wonder one comes across bold sentences like: Animal's type men urinate in the open's) but I feel we, the educated lot, have to start from somewhere. So, why not from WhatsApp?

Yes, it's time. No longer can they make up for the missing apostrophe by offering free calling.

I know the journey will be hard so I suggest we allow ourselves to use the application only in case of emergencies, and that too when we've placed a sticker on the app. Till then, let's see if can revive the art of writing as we were once taught in the English class.