“Shweta, your mic is on” a dozen (of 111) classmates beseeched a now famous young woman called Shweta, unaware her Zoom mic was on, while she gossiped with a friend about her friend Pandit and his “sex-addicted” girlfriend and details he had shared about their sex life. The clip which went viral, was like a cabaret sequence in an old Bollywood movie. The risqué song and dance provided by Shweta, talking to her friend with the lip-smacking abandon of one who has bonafide juicy gossip, oblivious to impending danger (a screen recording villain!). The desperation of cringing classmates crying “Shweta, your mic is on”, like Nirupa Roy in the kidnapper’s snare, trying to warn her son. And, as movies ended with “kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hain”, yaniki the police arriving too late, here the teacher suddenly appeared with “sorry I had got disconnected for some time, did you all see the PPT?”

The clip is also a story within a story within a story about privacy. To record and release the clip without her consent violated Shweta’s digital privacy. Shweta betrayed Pandit’s confidences. But, hadn’t Pandit betrayed his girlfriend, by sharing their sex life, with Shweta?