(Dashamlav) Bindu khatre mein hai!

You may not have noticed, but the decimal point is facing an existential crisis. Once the dignified custodian of precision, it now finds itself mocked, ignored and occasionally replaced by emojis. But the greatest threat it now faces is the ignominy of being 'rounded off'. Accountants once bowed before it. Engineers whispered sweet nothings into its dotty ear. Matriarchs once counted on it. Today, the dashamlav bindu is reduced to a misplaced bindi, a punctuation refugee wandering between numbers like a granular speck.

Think of its plight. In supermarket racks, a pack of chips is no longer ₹29.99 any more, providing us that psychological comfort and kick of it being under ₹30. It's now 'fully 30', because decimals are apparently too delicate for aspirational kirana counters. Which is ironic in this age of QR and online payment where that 1 paisa can be 'returned' as change. Worse, inflation has turned it into a cruel joke. What's the difference between ₹99.99 and ₹100? Nothing, except the decimal point's desperate attempt to stay relevant. If existential crises had a mascot, it would be this lonely dot. Once a guardian of nuance, it's now a victim of rounding, inflation and human impatience. The decimal point doesn't just separate numbers but keeps barbarism and civilisation apart. Ignore it, and we'll soon be counting our days.