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Himanshu Kumar wanted to send a tweet commemorating Martyr's Day on January 30 – the day Mahatma Gandhi was killed in 1948. Instead, as the 32-year-old was checking his calendar in the morning to prepare for a busy Monday, he received a Zoom link. On the other side of his screen were many like him, and three solemn faces waiting to deliver the news: Their services were no longer required. 

The tech worker, who had flown to the US six years ago from Begusarai, Bihar, scrambled to message a few colleagues before his Slack access was cut. 

He then called