Thumbs up in arms, strike from Thursday

Twiddling with anger, thumbs on Tuesday threatened to go on a strike if they don't get their due recognition and respect, and of course the diamond ring.

"Start respecting thumb, that's the thumb rule," said Mr Mota Angootha, the president of Thumbs for Justice in Human Anatomy (TJHA), an organisation set up by thumbs. "Don't treat us like thumbshit, we are thumb-body special," Mr Antootha said, read out the organisation's banner.

The threat of strike sent panic waves among thousands of SMS-addicted youth across Asia and Europe. Government offices in countries like India (illiteracy: 35 per cent) were worried because most of the work happens thanks to the thumb-impression.

Economy experts warned of a drop in revenue from short messaging for mobile telephony companies. Experts have also warned of virtual crisis in the mobile gaming world if thumbs go on strike as planned.

Some people had already complained of something numb in the thumb. "My thumb has been bit funny since morning. Is it a partial strike or something?" Ms Asha Sachdeva said, soon after the announcement of the strike.

TJHA, however, denied reports that some thumbs had already begun the strike, but added that the strike beginning Thursday would not stop till people started showing some respect.

"When it comes to text we are made to perform, when it comes to sex we get no attention, especially in Asia. When a man is wooing a woman, he gives her rings that never come to us," Mr Angootha said.

"The wedding ring (angoothi), which rightly and etymologically belongs to us, goes to the ring finger. The small finger gets all the love and care, because it's small. The middle finger feels it's the centre of the universe. Our studies show that 98 per cent of the population would wear rings and other jewels on all fingers but thumbs," a TJHA release said, citing "gross discrimination".

Anatomy specialists have supported the thumbs movement. "They have been tolerating a lot of fingering. Do people realise that to lift even the smallest thing, one needs the thumb and one of the fingers. Remember thumbs are crucial, while any finger would do. They have the right to demand preference when it comes to ring."

"It's impossible to send an SMS without a thumb, just forget about gaming. I need to see a shrink," said 22-year-old Maria Sharma of Modernist School in Delhi. Maria and her friends are addicted to gaming and SMS to the extent they order their Coke by SMS as they are too busy playing to fetch it from the grocery shop.

The strike however would not affect children's thumbs. According to TJHA, children love the thumb. It's when they grow up that parents brainwash them into believing thumbs are bad.

"All children suck thumb. And they love it. But parents pressure them out of it. We are with the children who get penalised for their love for the thumb," Mota Angootha said clarifying why the strike would spare children.