Operation Zero Balance 341

 The simple query raised by a reader set him thinking, why not?  

The Pulitzer, Booker and Nobel Prizes involve an individual's time, toil and energy. A reader's review is no less, involves invaluable time and unbudgeted energy. ghost accounts in our banking system must have frightened the reader to ask some disturbing questions - Are we lacking in a bold Kuber like controllers and an equally responsive Brahma like minds, to tackle this menace? At the end of the review, the reader had left a thought as a gift, “why fghosts are not pressed into service in our ecosystem!” To such a reader, I owe this 'thank you' write up.  

I wired my due appreciation to Brahma, Kuber and the fghosts, the roles played in the earlier write up. 

As usual, Narada had pitched his tent on the Himalayas and from there hovered over different parts on Earth. The never-ending conflicts, wars, famines, political upheavals, natural and man-made disasters along with Science & Technological advancements almost challenging the Creator, filled his chronicle. Laden with this brief, Narada was ascending towards Dev Lok, concluding the periodic visit, to report to his father - the Creator. 

Of all the things, hitherto undetected human traits stumped him, puzzled him and worried him. One was the proclivity to hoard wealth beyond lawful means, need and the audacity to hide it in plain sight and yet remain invisible (ghost accounts) to the Authorities. Number two was the degraded political system, where a new compendium on hate speech is being produced, like a runway nuclear reactor gone rogue. The coined words are so vitriolic, even the pages are ashamed and afraid to get printed with them. Narada mused. “Before hearing them, Brahma will have to heavily protect his ears, against leaching!" 

Sensing Narada’s intent to request for a rectification mechanism, Brahma's heads started ringing the alarm bells. Speaking in unison they said, “Amassed wealth and the compendiums of hate words are like Hydras with tentacles of Octopus.  In Dev Lok, inviting allegations of involvement, on account of righteousness is forbidden and banking on deniability is the only operative word. Distance yourself. Give a hint to Narada to meet with fghosts to do what he needs to do. Anyways, Narada is known for creating tumult that ends well for all”. Brahma, wary of the traps accepted this unanimous opinion and the safe escape route. 

The moment, Narada appeared before him, Brahma said, “I know the contents of your brief. Some of the fghosts are waiting for you in the garden. Discuss your concerns with them. Don’t put me in the picture and I don’t want to be anywhere within hearing distance. Right now, my hearing functions are going off-line.” 

Narada, though felt disappointed about not getting his planned family time was, understood that deniability overrode comradery. Taking his leave, he went in search of the fghosts to get acquainted with them, wondering where in heaven, Brahma had sourced them? Where is Chitragupta, who could shine some light on this different kind of staff under Brahma! 

Straightaway, Narada briefed the fghosts, “These account holders are cyber-smart, synthesise fake Identity with stolen real identities and supplemented with fake information to easily open ghost accounts. They have capability to manufacture fake documents of any type of any country. Like the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), protocols exist between operators to help out each other.  There are black sheep grazing in the banking system itself, willing to flag dormant and dead accounts. Such accounts attract fraudsters, like honeybees to the flowers, looking to turn them into "ghost" or mule accounts to carry out non-legitimate transactions. 

After seeking clarifications and hearing explanations, the fghosts joined the discussion with their view point, “Their impunity implies that, the regulators are outsmarted and out gunned, wielding only toy guns such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and standing dismal chance of weeding out these fraudulent elements and their ghost accounts. Are we right?” 

Expressing their willingness to help, they asked for time to have a group discussion before coming up with a plan. 

Narada cleverly masking his impatience & doubt, asked, “how do you cut a diamond?”  Before he could close his lips, the fghosts replied, “What else? Only with another diamond!”  

He left them saying, “Then find that such a diamond quickly and be back.” 

After hearing their concise assessment, Narada knew that Brahma had chosen these fghosts on merit. Wondering, how could they so quickly grasp the situation, he remained on standby to see the diamond they will come up with, to end the menace.  He had a personal stake – The Earth has almost become his home away from home. 

He was surprised, when the fghosts returned with not one but three diamonds. He guessed that the fghosts have decided on a blitzkrieg to hit hard instead of dealing out soft punches. 

“We need to create a unique island offering unique offshore accounts, via only the dark web.”

“We need to create a set of nano ghostobots to let in the banking system.”

 “We need to create a set of nano ghostobots to let out among other networks”. 

“One set of nano ghostobots to pervade the banking system, to spy and identify the black sheep and the ghost account holders. The trap will be set by engineering the transactions to bounce through many accounts and after hitting the stratosphere get credited back to the same account. The alarmed ghost account holders will run to the black sheep in the bank. Careful monitoring will identify the black sheep who helped to create the mule accounts. The follow up clandestine confabulations will help in further confirmation.” 

Another set of nano ghostobots will surf the network of cyberites, who prop up these ghost and mule account operators. 

Narada had a doubt - how this would be of help?

The fghosts said, “Pardon us for being blunt. When you are in doubt, what do you do?"

Consult someone.

Exactly. The operators, not satisfied with the local help in the bank, will rush to consult the cyberites. With constant surveillance, we can trap both the helped and the back-end supporters. 

Narada asked, "Then what is the need for the unique island, offering unique banking facilities and the dark web?" 

“Are we not trying to snare sharks and whales swimming in financial frauds? By nature, these cyberites and ghost account operators suspect everything, even their shadows. To allay their doubts and inject confidence, we have to create an awesome and inspiring set up. Why dark web? When there is no light, no shadows! Do you go out for fishing without lures?  Project Island will be that mega lure!” 

Now, Narada understood the logic of mounting the blitzkrieg style attack. He readily agreed to facilitate the Project Island, by roping in external experts. Luckily, he had exclusive permission to access Chitragupta’s secret diaries and knew which souls to call. He set to work after sending a thank you vibe to Chitragupta. 

His first choice fell on two asuras Madhu and Kaitabha, who had personal experience in helping to create landmasses, islands within the vast, water-covered Earth.  This time for a change, as they would be creating an island manifesting as souls, they happily agreed to the proposal. Narada became confident that the Project Island will be off to a groundbreaking start. 

Next, the demon Panchajana, who lived in a conch shell in the depths of the ocean with a pastime to trouble the devas. For thrill, he killed and swallowed anyone who strayed near his abode. That was eons ago and Chitragupta’s foot note had suggested a role reversal, in order to show him how good his earlier life could have been. Narada met with Panchajana’s soul, explained Chitragupta’s plan and convinced it to be the ruler of the Island, populate it with known and pliant souls for a limited period drama. The soul agreed to live up to the expectation of Chitragupta’s footnote.

Narada visited the spirit of Bali a famous asura. An oceanographic expert in churning the ocean. To stir the mix well, he recruited the spirit of Narakasura, an expert in establishing kingdoms. Unsure why he chose them, Narada hoped the fghosts will put them, with their excellent C Vs or credentials, to good use!

Narada asked, “what role the island would play in all this?” 

“We need an Offshore Financial Center (OFC) with a registered office.  Our island will be declared as a more than flexible tax haven to attract depositors. AI generated brochure will proudly sing praise of our modus operandi as offering the better than the best “hawala” and other international banking experiences. A paragraph in the brochure will highlight the unbreakable CommLink, never ever known to mankind., warning the hacks to pack their bags and leave us alone. Is this not a diamond to cut many diamonds, if you overlook some financial corners we will be cutting? 

What about the economy of the island?

Your choices Bali and Narakasura are our bets. One can churn the ocean to net marine life and the other can sell the catch and establish the economic capital for the kingdom! 

What about paid-up capital for OFC?

The island and the infrastructures themselves, along with marine wealth. With our own ruler, who is going to question the granted banking license! You have surely not forgotten that our present ruler, in his earlier avatar created and lived in a conch shell. We can do excellent business by offering services to create shell companies for which we foresee ever increasing demand. Wait and watch, this will be a master stroke in financial jugglery! 

How do you propose to manage the settlements?

The fine print in the brochure says, “NO OVERDRAFT”. Hence settlements just equal the balance in that account. Kindly pardon us. For deniability’s sake, the CommLink specs and finer operating details are being withheld from you. 

After getting the entire picture, Narada’s head started to gyrate uncontrollably and simultaneously, in another part of Dev Lok, Bahama’s multiple heads reciprocated with sympathetic gyrations.

Narada asked, “Why two types of ghostobots and what they would do?”

These especially talented ghostobots can see through a granite slab and read the contents of a closed book. They will quietly pervade the banks sand scan the closed ledgers and list out dead accounts that are being used as mule accounts. When, transaction from a mule account is initiated, ghostobots are programmed to commence bouncing routines till the money is safely returned into the same account. This will bring the holders to confabulate with the facilitators (black sheep) giving us the identities. 

The second set of differently programmed ghostobots go out in the field, reaching far and wide, to dig out the cyberites and networkers. The collected dossiers will leak, only on our command, into the computers of banks and Enforcement Agencies. Be assured, the rest will be history titled "Operation Zero balance." 

Narada had only one doubt – “Will this Operation Zero balance succeed?" 

Annoyed, the fghosts challenged, "Let us go to Earth and we will prove with just only one catch across the banking system, cyberites and networkers. Are you ready?" 

Narada, ever happy to visit Earth, readily agreed. Down on Earth, they settled in a mega city where the chances of success for the trap to work was high. The fghosts set up their MLHSDS (Multiple Layer Holographic Status Display System) tuned and tested it. For Narada’s benefit they explained the various controls and display features.  Narada admitted, “It is pretty impressive! Particularly, the way any screen can be peeled back or brought to the front or the way each screen can held as a  separate like a page, is truly amazing!” 

Just at one after noon time, an alert of a transaction getting bounced came on the screen. Another layer showed the frantic call from an unknown person to a black sheep in a bank. The third layer status screen locked the coordinates of the bank, black sheep and the caller. 

Narada nervously asked, “How secure is this communication? And what is its reach?”

Fghosts replied, "Our CommLink is really out of the world in genre and reach." 

Will an automatic alert go out to the bank, the real account holder and Enforcement authorities? 

The aim, now is to bring out the ghost account operators, the location and the black sheep. The other set of ghostobots will receive and identify the back-end operators but do not act upon the inputs for now. 

By the time your system sounds the alarm, will it not be too late? 

On blitzkrieg mode, the network involving bank to back-end will be collected in a day by Earth's standard. Much damage financial will not occur because most of the transactions will be unable to get out of the bouncing loop. One or two may escape the cycle, that is intentional. When the alarm goes up, an army of investigators will descend on the scene to do the honours.  

As they were speaking inputs from the other set of ghostobots populated each layer of the screen, as per the programme loaded in the OSW (Operating Soft Ware). 

This was an out of the world experience even for Narada. He had one more question. What is the purpose of the Project Island when ghost accounts have vanished from the banking system? 

Once a ghost account holder, the itch never subsides. They will be searching for other outlets. There, our OFC will be sitting on the island offering facilities to open accounts and shell companies.  

Narada felt like being blown to the very centre of his universe. Speechless he stood like a statue. The fghosts had to bring him back to Earth, as they wanted to get back and report to Brahma. 

Not so noble, Mr. Nobel! 329

Dream costs nothing. To daydream, it costs next to nothing. A person in power, could make this statement because he can deliberately disrupt carefully built international relationships with a signature. This task becomes much easier, if he has advisors who misguide based on misinformation or who have sealed lips. As the daydream trans-lands from an episode to a full-length feature film in which something happens in every frame - the rest of the world finds itself flooded with diktats from one sunrise to the next, every hour on the hour. There is no method but only madness in this ruler of a proclaimed, benchmark democracy. 

Imaginch has been dreaming for a Nobel Peace Prize. Once he even asked his one and only friend about his chances of getting it. The friend asked him, what credentials do you have to covet that Prize? Feeling hurt, Imaginch replied, " I have never quarrelled with my neighbours and never stood in a place where a fight is going on." 

His friend replied, “Your case is as pathetic as a weak password, you are encouraged to improve in any internet portal." 

Not to be put down so easily, Imaginch asked, “hypothetically speaking, what are my chance of getting that Prize?” 

The friend became serious and replied, “At the most, six persons can be awarded a single Prize. Coming to your chances, I estimate about 10% of the world population living in all the six continents are eligible. To this we may have to add a few world leaders as VVIP wildcard entries. Even if you are one among the 10 does not help your case at all. Considering all these factors, the chances of someone from the Nobel Institute to recognise and award the Prize to you are ...” 

Imaginch shouted, “Come on, out with it.” 

His friend calmly replied, “Odds are astronomical and even beyond the Big Bang times the Big bang.” 

Undaunted, Imaginch continued. “Even in his horrible dreams, Alfred Nobel could not have experienced the fright of his life. Politicians and dictators are busy dynamiting the very foundation of Nobel Prize for Peace. Quirk of fate, the inventor of dynamite unwittingly had provided the tool to take down the edifice he had erected for a Peace Nobel. 

The ghost of Alfred Nobel must be ruing his dream of rewarding the Nobel Prize to those who brought the "greatest benefit to humankind" in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ghost recalled the premature obituary that labelled him a "merchant of death” which forced him to create a lasting, positive legacy to overcome his repentance. The prizes were designed to reward outstanding achievements in key fields, to encourage progress. 

Nobel dreamed of countering the destructive potential with constructive interventions.  The Peace Prize has its own story - Nobel, inspired by the efforts, of his activist- friend for peace, decided to honuor those who worked for promoting international brotherhood and peace, with this coveted Prize. Nobel believed that humanism and the power of science and knowledge will work to improve society. Alfred’s ghost had only this regret, for having had these noble thoughts and thinking that the world would not be ruled by “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall type” people. The ghost cleverly used ‘people’ instead of ‘men’! 

No doubt the value of things, moral and materials have changed a lot since his times. But this should not be used to make him turn in his grave, every year. Of course, it is a grave concern, which he failed foresee. Now, the grave-turners are breaking speed barriers to claim a Nobel, that too for Peace! Is it to keep their peace of mind? 

The unashamed aspirations of political leaders are being expressed personally or by proxies. It did not matter whether the leaders are elected, selected or usurpers. On the flip side, the orchestrated trumpeting, unwittingly left a deep well of sympathy for Alfred Nobel.  

Had he anticipated this lowering of the bar on the eligibility criterion, Alfred would have got proxies to demand a Nobel Peace Prize for him, before his demise. By today's standards, this would have easily passed muster as a coordinated PRO exercise. Roping in some NGOs to a deal with the Nobel Foundation will certainly add dignity & legitimacy for the bid. Alfred Nobel had set the precedence ‘for missing out’ on the moment of Nobel glory. Many after him, missed a Nobel Prize for their achievements and break throughs, including in the theatres of war & brokered peace. 

This recent trend along with other countless unrelated trends, disturbed Imaginch, now a non-contender to any of the Nobel Prize - after his friend had dashed his hopes with insurmountable odds. Then you may ask why get disturbed? 

Don’t   the densely populated countries having an army of contenders- ranging from councillor to the head of the nation deserve a go at the Prize, with pending civil and criminal cases, short - or long-term residency in jail or out on bail from every court in the nation, trying to catalyse discontent, rewriting textbooks on tax free corruption practices and confusing the electorates, every time? Have these worthies not contributed in all the scientific, and economical spheres? Forgetting the criminal cases, why other efforts could not be considered for at least a runner-up Peace Nobel! 

Another nation may have a political group picking up region and religion to demonstrate electoral-victory bending effects. Is this group's achievement not on par with Alfred Einstein's bending of light in space-time curvature? For this group's peaceful efforts, why not a Nobel, keeping aside the side effects like arson, looting, a few lost lives here and there and a few court cases? 

Nations that went about colonising the world, importing dirt cheap working hands and literally stealing   wealth from asunder get Peace Prize probably by leaving the colonised nations poor and starving and too weak. Where is the question of them fighting against the oppressor and at the same time take time to produce a contender!  This being a shining example, what harm befalls, if a leader from a country, which is hard to locate on the world map, stakes a claim for Nabel Peace Prize? Are we again living in the wild west where people staked claims on mining and drilling rights? 

These seekers are not disturbed by the fact that Nobel Peace Prize recipients Carl von Ossietzky (1935) Germany, Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) Myanmar, Liu Xiaobo (2010) China, Ales Bialiatski (2022) Belorussia and Narges Mohammadi (2023) Iran suffered incarceration and really had their necks on the chopping block. 

Today's world runs on GDP, per capita income and Sovereign bonds and other evil monetary traps. When population density produced more conflicts, countries with lean population stood a chance to start conflicts and then appear to end them. The short list emerges with who spent time in stopping military actions initiated by their predecessors and a few among them who supplied arms to one or both the sides and simultaneously brokered peace deals. To improve the odds further, they to let loose a pack of influencers to get proposed or bludgeon the Nobel Institute to part with a Nobel Peace Prize, peacefully! 

Those, who have authored textbooks on cheating, corruption, nepotism and cronyism and stock market manipulation, and now in prison, will be happy with a Prize for Peace or Literature! Little do they worry about turning these illustrious winners in their graves - Nobel laureates in Literature who wrote their works after enduring imprisonment - Knut Hamsun (1920), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1970), Wole Soyinka (1986), Imre Kertész (2002) and Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Often cited as a contender, but did not strike gold). 

Blowing self-trumpet or trumped-up proxy support or # Nobel@ Trumpet concert is not the way to achieve this honour! Overconfidence, assumption, grand vision of global recognition, a burning desire to take the world by storm with an unwelcome solo performance is definitely not enough. Has the world not survived the worst? Imaginch picked up his gauntlet against Alfred Nobel, albeit 125 odd years later. He had questions for him. 

“Anticipating the changing world, you should have left a strict SOP to the Nobel Institute. This would have allowed the Peace Prize to enjoy a peaceful, meaningful and respectful existence without getting subjected to pulls and pressures from contenders. Why did not you do it?” 

“You stood no chance, leaving the money and the world, to win a Nobel which would have amounted to a self-goal. But many after you missed a Nobel Prize for reasons other than their achievements and break thoughts.  Don’t you realise that you have left a door open “for reasons other than” to bring pressure on the Institute, by personal declarations and through proxy voices?” 

The Nobel Peace prize is under threat from diplomatic pouches bringing files on sanctions and deep freezing of assets. Diplomatic pouches are the soft threat and press briefings are hard threat. Has this world become munificent? In this world nothing is for free. Almost all pay for it but a rare breed of few makes all the others to pay for it, on behalf of them. Not so a noble trait, for getting a Nobel Prize. Whether the Institute will duck or dig in heels worried Imaginch. 

After enduring this long winding speech, his one & only friend left the scene, without reworking to confirm the odds of Imaginch getting a Nobel Prize, as the man himself had opted out of contention.

Before leaving, he said, “Had Mr. Nobel foreseen the day when trumpet blowers would populate the bazaar, with a mere hint he would have got a Nobel Prize awarded to himself. The committee would have made sure that this Special Nobel Prize would never ever be awarded to another person, living or dead!”

Imaginch cursed himself for not coming with such a noble thought.

ChintaMany’s diary page No 7 – The tool kits 328

{.. how to spot the species of pressure builders? Why the pressure builder always makes an uninvited appearance, at the last minute?}                                                       From ChintaMany’s diary page No. 6

In an otherwise mundane life, most of us make do with whatever we can earn with no other intention other than working out our sinews to better ourselves. Wonder why this rant to start with? Hopefully, the doubt will get cleared as you and me go along a little further, down the lines. 

The “Oldowan toolkit" started its journey about at least 2.6 million years ago in Africa, as a set of intentionally manufactured tools. This toolkit consisted of basic stone tools such as hammerstones, stone cores and sharp flakes. They are used to batter other stones, to remove flakes and to create edges and as cutting instruments.  The primary purpose of this toolkit was to process food - in butchery to carve out meat off animal carcasses, to break bones to access marrow, to process tough plant materials and extend the physical abilities of early humans as an aid for survival.  By about 1.76 million years ago, the “Acheulean” toolkit, such as the more advanced, large cutting tools like handaxes came into existence. 

Modern utility Tool kits come in various sizes depending on the nature of the job involved - engines and down to plumbing, electrical and electronic devices. From among these common tools – jack, tyre rod, spanners, wrenches, Allen keys, box spanners, cutting pliers, screw drivers, hammer, knifes, measuring and sealing tapes, if possible, a first aid pack, rust remover and grease sticks and other useful things find a definite place in the tool kit. If it is comfortable, let us call it a toolbox. 

The tools and the hands holding them endeavour to extend the life of machineries, home appliances and keep pipelines and electricity flowing. The tools and the hands that provide these services are unsung heroes livening up to our earlier rant on our mundane life. 

How can a mundane life be left peaceful? This opened the door for the entry of another kind of tool kit. The ultramodern "toolkit” emerged prominently in the early 2010s to facilitate rapid, decentralized mobilization in social media-driven protests, though its roots trace back to online activist groups in the 1980s. A digital, shareable document containing guidelines, resources, and strategies for action evolved from physical pamphlets and flyers. This modern digital toolkit served to unite, educate, and coordinate supporters across the globe instantly. 

 A Toolkit acts as a resource finder for organising and staging local protests by faster dissemination of information to a global audience and orchestrate "tweetstorms” among supporters scattered globally. Informs participants about the cause, provide talking points, and suggest strategies and advise protesters on safety and evasion techniques, legal aid, suggest hashtags, create shareable graphics and counter misinformation. In non-protest contexts, being used by organizations to provide consistent resources for implementing Intellectual Property Rights or managing business projects. 

ChintaMany was agitated to find out that, in essence, the toolkit is designed to ensure that leaderless protest movements do not splinter, aimed at dismantling or combating the existing systems by facilitating rapid, informed action. In short, calls go out to man the battleground. 

The radical difference is in what sort of tools this kit is stocked up with. Funds, disruptive mind set, organised and instant worldwide transmission of out of context misrepresentation and zero balance in ethics, moral and other noble human traits but overflowing vicarious intent to commit or encourage nefarious acts. This type of tool kit would travel thousands of kilometers to prey upon and enjoy the pleasure in doing so. 

A few tech savvy individuals running away from one's own country start a tool kit and bring discredit as if duty bound to pay off a debt.  How else can they practice freedom of speech and action enshrined in some foreign constitution? They become a borrowed foreign needle to poke into indigenous eyes!  To give misguided company to these runaways, there are tribes of people who label them as activists. Now the bridge elements get assembled for furthering the ‘agenda’ of the movement. The herd of tubers and pipers marauding as influencers fall like dominos and without any compunction use the imported kits to spread or prepare the grounds for cyber invasion - on any ongoing issue between a section of people and their government. 

As always, moles in the target country willingly come forward to be used and discarded like a pair of gloves. They are so naïve to think that by lying down if they throw mud upwards, it will come down on somebody else! The particular issue may have nothing to do with them, but they don’t mind to help and denigrate their own country is a moot point. 

There is a pyramidal construction in action, to stir unrest and achieve selfish goals. Hypocritic billionaires after amassing wealth through fraudulent means are suddenly bit by their conscious to foster democratic norms in other countries. High moral-horse riding runaways and foreign activists, who do not even know the latitude and longitude of the country where they want to stage their disruptive activities, become the generals and go about recruiting foot-soldiers. The billionaires create endowments to channel funds to sow the seeds of disharmony and disruption. The runaways and foreign activists move in with placards, microphones, video cameras and with invited networks in tow, to add hi-octane fuel in the agitating mind. 

The issue, background, relevant governing provisions, justification and judicial mechanisms that are open for redressal are of no concern for deploying the specially curated toolkit. The tool kit and the pyramidal structures funding them project any emerging, amicable settlement of the dispute as a draconian measure to keep the kettle boiling on occupied highways! 

Why this toolkit happens?  There are ultra optimists and ultra pessimists. There are those who factor in a little pessimism but choose to be optimistic, aiming to separate the larger goodness by ignoring minor negativism.

Treading the middle path, there are those who don’t want to be a pessimist or optimists, permanently. This vacillating type invariably gets tripped on the wrong foot. Now comes the downside of humanity comprising of the average pessimist and the ultra-pessimist and the doomsayers. This group never find, work for or appreciate anything that is good. Buried among all the above variations, lies the answer to why the toolkits happen! 

Probably, we could answer that question by choosing the sponsors, pushers and the foot soldiers from the above-mentioned type of people. 

The sponsors carrying the vestige of colonial mindset are unable to relinquish the sordid, past misdeeds. They belong to nations that became wealthy by occupations, ruling and methodically emptying their coffers of wealth and minerals. When there was nothing else to plunder in the vaults, above or below the ground, then they left those nations bankrupt. Inheritors of that colonial vestige followed that text-book procedures with suitable modern and questionable business models, methodically went after minerals and oil to make billions, by other. To shield their business empires and dubious practices, from becoming subjects of inquiry and legal actions, they create endowments, under the guise of philanthropy (all the while thinking humanity my foot!), and fund toolkits 

The electronic ‘tubers’ and ‘pipers’ with the sole intent of blowing up a balloon, looking at the widening inadequacies, inequalities and perceived suppression of voices, descend on the scene. They do not understand the fact that somebody gave them the ballon marked with dots and they were being used merely as a bellow to blow the balloon. When you go for fishing, do you muddy the waters? These nerds, possessing the technology feel entitled to have a say in everything, will muddy the water and then try to catch some fishes. Portraying only negativity reflects on the depravity of this kind of agents of toolkits. Granted, everyone has an opinion but are there no better avenues to earn a few honest dollars and a band of loyal subscribers?  Why they refuse to come out of the thinking that a frame alone will become the picture? 

These shameless weasels, gravitate into the folds of the waiting pyramidal structures and help them to engineer the collapse of governance seizing any opportunity and issue which in no way are connected or detrimental to them. 

The moles (sleeper agents) in the target country are a confused lot. They willingly become propagators and sympathisers for any kind of toolkit and readily fall prey like a moth into the flame only to get consumed by the fire. Do they realise that the country is larger and powerful than the toolkit they import or copy. Will they ever realise it is beneficial to help plug the holes instead of making new ones? 

The question all of them should ask themselves is - did anyone requested their philanthropic funds, the expertise of the balloon blowers and the local moles for their kind presence and help? 

Maybe, an in-house grown toolkit is needed to educate and eradicate this tribe of sleeper agents. Finding that the weed growers and their impact steadily losing ground, the ‘tubers’ and ‘pipers’ would stop coming.  Deserted by the generals and foot-soldiers, the pyramidal structures will slowly leave the scene. 

ChintaMany woke up with a start, a fright and a disbelief not knowing whether it was a dream or real or wishful thinking, contrary to the ways of the masquerading humanitarian minded philanthropists with cold hearts! Will they stop, if Nobel Prizes are awarded to them?  He closed the last line with a bold “NO CHANCE”.  Because they will pocket the change to start another set of toolkits! 

Unable to come to terms with his last entry, he added his thoughts as a postscript. 

“Would someone come forward and introduce Kill switches, malwares or any other means to corrupt the toolkits and render them fit for the recycle bin! A corrupt means to take down the corrupted pyramidal structures along with the generals and foot-soldiers!

Is it not a practice to include dos and don’ts for packaged material?  He would have no issues with toolkits, if they had included these warnings “Don’t meddle elsewhere without understanding the issue and the existing system of remedies. Check your locus standi before getting involved? Do you qualify to be a judge?”. Then the toolkit would have a noble intention, indeed!" 

ChintaMany mused.  Probably the early humans needed them for survival and not to protest against the environment.  With the modern version, people use them to fight for survival - of whom is the question?

Silent speak - ChintaMany’s secret weapon: 327

Over the years, ChintaMany had learnt two things. One, keeping counsel to himself. Two, never engage in any verbal exchange. These, he had learnt from watching movies and tear-jerking T V dramas. The scripted dialogues of one character are delivered after dutifully hearing out the other character completing its allotted lines. Occasionally, to add life to the dying script commercial breaks are introduced before the other character could respond. In some percentage of the viewers, these intruding commercial breaks became nail-biting suspense to know what the dialogue in reply would be. Not the one to bite off his nails, ChintaMany tooled himself to keep his counsel to himself.

This is not a mastery learnt overnight. During school and college days, he had overheard or eavesdropped snippets of conversational gems venting hard feelings on the third-party recipients. His baptism in silence started when that third party recipient happened to be dear friend or part of the family of elders who had adult- to-adult issues. Though driven by despair, as he could not raise in defence of the dear friend or relative, out of necessity, he learnt to keep silence and his sanity. 

While independently developed his secret weapon combining ‘keeping one’s counsel and remaining silent, he might have infringed on the rights of a Nobel Laureate. To avoid being accused of plagiarism, he referenced the inspiring words of Richard Feynman – “There is nothing called absolute silence as you can't stop hearing yourself. The human brain devoid of external sounds to focus on starts to listen to various organs of your body chatting while functioning” This ex post facto, accolade to Richard Feynman settled the issue of the honorarium. 

When invaded by conflicting thoughts, ChintaMany used this weapon - talks to himself in silence, not out of shame or fear of being given a berth on a psychiatrist couch. He wouldn't have bothered anyways. What naturally happened within him, stayed right there. He liked to call them as silent conversations and had learnt to listen and live with it, even though they refused to follow a fixed schedule. There in lay a difficulty - sometimes he missed what others wanted to say or said to him. 

As time elapsed, ChintaMany found to his amusement and distress, in equal measures, that these nighttime conversations were superior in quality than the daytime batch. Subjects and peoples being the topic, scientists and astronomers shared their workload and were getting free advice from his conversations. 

At times, politicians of different hues queued up to entertain him. Sometimes the melodramatic script on politicians’ future, scams dragging the courts inexorably to the demise of the perpetrator, opinions about exit polls by psephologist and amateurs left him in tears.  As a comic relief, the TV panel discussions included a new class of entrants - astrologers, tarot card and parrot card readers, as they have also come up with pre-poll predictions and have post-poll predictions on the cards. Not to be left as orphans, the losers train their guns on EVM conspiracy and interfering foreign hands in gloves! ChintaMany wondered whether this grumble should be the trailer or the T V panel discussions?! 

His advisories, tears and amusements came at a cost - disturbed sleep. His sleep is left to the mercy of timing and content of that conversation that decides whether the amber/ yellow signal will turn to red or green. 

Whom he liked to hear most during these one to ones? Certainly, the scientists and astronomers, as it was an opportunity to recollect or learn things anew. Occasionally, these silent conversations take place in a garden where departed souls of da Vinci, Newton and Einstein hung out and went hammer and tongs arguing ‘who among them should have been rated as the best’. Though he would have preferred to hear Einstein and Neils Bohr going about quantum phenomenon once again. To his dismay neither Einstein nor Neils Bohr showed interest to entangle again!  In the midst of all these intellectual bashings, he wondered how he was drawn in that far! 

What he would do otherwise? Hear silent talks about or the exit polls along with the usual exit lines - incorrect interpretation of data or voters cleverly feeding false information during survey.  On politicians rushing out the bottomless wells of scams to court and court hearing them out post- haste, leaving other non-political litigants cursing themselves for not having added a political angle in their civil suits and so on. Since the matter would be sub judice, he was thankful that the one to ones sympathising with the non-political litigants have remained imprisoned in his mind, without assigning a case number. 

To his surprise, once he was hearing a conversation about himself.  He had talked to himself to gift some valuables to a relative and to look out with a clinical eye on a relative’s kids who are becoming no good and so on. This his -brain- talking- to- his- brain distressed him more as even in his dream he was being portrayed as an aloof (procul), a misanthrope and afraid of mentoring. 

During any such conversation he had no control over the tickertape which kept on scrolling along in a TV which he could not turnoff. This was alarming to say the least. Even during such episodes, he managed to wonder how so much information got packed and delivered in nano seconds! 

One early morning, probably after an hour past the midnight the exact time as he had a helping of sweets at that time) a conversation with PowerPoint presentation, with bullet points, started in his mind. 

He carried penury in his pockets.

He is afraid of heights.

He has siblings.

He is neither an extrovert not an introvert - an Otrovert?

He left the place once he is finished there.

He did not get a respectable education..

Is this about a real person or his mind playing a midnight trick? If so, how could he identify the person? Or is it a mind game being played by the silent conversationalist? If so, whatever he had been hearing boils down to an act of pulling a thick woolen blanket over his head? He left the analytical part of the why and who that would come later as the day progressed. 

That November morning did the trick. Mist hung in the air waiting for a gentle breeze or sun to climb a little higher over the horizon to drive it away as it was struggling to keep up the chill factor. As ChintaMany just started to tuck his lean and shivering body into a woolen sweater, to brave the chill, a Eureka moment took great pleasure in making an unexpected appearance to ambush him. Why should not it, as it is about to deliver a defining tool, to solve his puzzle! 

At that moment, he was struggling to push his head through the neckline, and the thick neckband of the sweater was trying to spend some anger on him for being forcefully stretched over his pumpkin shaped head.  Freezing cold on the outside and frozen mind from within, left him stranded in the sweater like a head sticking out of a manhole. 

He segregated the bullet points based on perceived synonymic traits.

The first group challenged him with an identity crisis to resolve.

He carried penury in his pockets.

He left the place once he is finished there.

He did not get a respectable education. 

He iterated the above pointers many times over and to aid instant reference, he scribbled them on post-it slips and promptly stuck them on the fridge’s door. For no reason, he found himself often near the fridge which invariably invited his mistress’s glares, warning him of tress pass. This ‘tress pass’ glare resulted in an unannounced eureka moment. He would deal with this sort of unannounced arrivals later as now he needed them now and then.  This moment led him to walk down the garden path towards a building site. 

As he stood wondering, knowing not what is there in store, he saw a workman shoving a purse into his trouser pocket and then pick up a pail of paint. A careful detail collecting look at the man’s weather-beaten face told him the story. Lack of good education, which otherwise would have landed him in better job and surely, he will have to leave the place after finishing the job. As he had witnessed the purse being shoved into the pocket, he felt no issue with his penury assumption! Satisfied with the manner in which he had solved the puzzle and after reaching home pulled out the post it slips for group one. 

He has siblings.

He is neither an extrovert not an introvert - an Otrovert?

This second group dared him to visit the realm of human psychology.  He dug up the meaning of Otrovert and what he learnt stunned him. This type feels like a perpetual outsider with a sense of detachment and does not fit into the traditional categories. Wondering how this word came up in that PowerPoint presentation, ChintaMany believed a pictogram would jog his mind to work creatively to unmask the identity of the person. He immediately downloaded a pictogram from internet and kept it face up on his table. After a long time looking at the pictogram, he decided to keep it as a suspense as to what he had decoded about the second group, for now. 

He is afraid of heights - acrophobic.

This candidate could either be an odd man out (mercifully not an odd woman out!) or seamlessly fit into the second group. He had the inkling that the person fitting this trait must be well known to him. He started to mentally tick off persons who do not exhibit fear of heights. 

He started at chair level and slowly climbed up the ladder. Enlarging the list, he included lifts, escalators and as an outlier the mechanical contraptions like giant wheels and rollercoasters. Now, you may have the doubt, “why did he leave out the jet planes?”

Maybe, he did not want to fly that high to clear his doubt. ChintaMany also happens to be realist. 

Going through all these filters and after ticking all the right boxes, only one person remained as the eligible candidate. The revelations shocked him and no other solution appeared appropriate. A sealed cover and keeping it hidden appeared to be the best option than revealing the identity.  Is it a boon or a bane, this question turned him towards science, where he was comfortable to have a conversation or a direct discussion. 

At this point, ChintaMany left us, high and dry wondering how did he fare as Sherlock Holmes and why did he keep the sealed cover hidden?  

Ask the author, maybe he knows what is in the sealed cover.