A most ugly spectacle of cyber-bullying has been unfolding in Kerala over the past week.

Professor M Leelavathy, a hugely respected figure in the state as a prolific writer, critic and teacher of Malayalam literature, turned 98 on the 12th of this month, and when a student who had come home to wish her on her birthday, enquired how she was going to celebrate the day, she said there will be no celebration because, “How can I even swallow food, when I see the children of Gaza standing in lines with vessels for food, hungry and desperate?”

This private remark, which was later reported by the media, would appear to any neutral observer as a statement of deep anguish from a grandmother on seeing the sorry plight of innocent children trapped in a war. However, it was pounced upon by social med

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