Switch Bharat to “swach” Bharath:

With so much emphasis being made on the drive for a clean India, Tom wanted to try his hand on essaying his feelings as an article, at least to read by himself.

Human life is inextricably linked with stars – both the heavenly & earthly types, and the influence they exert on them. He chose to group them together for a valid reason – both worlds contain bright blue stars, middle aged yellow stars, about to retire red giants and so on. On second thoughts, being an armchair sports enthusiast, he included sports stars also in the list.

Another interesting parallel he drew upon from this list was, all the types have a never-say-die attitude and evolve into series of ‘avtars’ till they fade, ‘shed’ their light and mass  to finally disappear from sight.

But there is this difference – the heavenly ones are put to use by us and the earthly ones make use of us! The bread & butter of a cosmologist come from the stars in the universe. The earthly stars are very clever and their bread, butter, imported luxuries and palatial pent houses are powered by their ready – to die fan following.

Tom after thinking over this weighty matter came to certain conclusions and decided to find ways to turn the table on them. To camouflage his plot, as an innocent scheme, he found ways to rope in big names in industries – National & MNC. He had the gut feeling,  “if a luring bag of oats is hung on the neck of a horse, it will gladly dip its neck into the grains”.

Then he calmly proceeded to list the ‘drives’ needed in the Nation’s interest and drew the type of E-stars who would be perfect, to anchor them.

Rout the drought:

A vast country like ours is under the whims of weather god or an angel or a villain. He wanted to leave the matter at this point as engaging in classifying the “who is who” will not eradicate drought.

His first choice fell upon a never-gave-up hero, who after successfully delivering box office bombs, somehow struck a gold mine and is about to restart his journey  towards the dumps.

Per se, actors deliver dialogues, with punch lines and feelings. A short briefing on the situation and a talented screenplay writer will equip him for a good performance in front of farmers about to commit suicide.

Even if the opening show is a flop, the tempo can be ramped up by ample publicity in all the media. This free publicity elixir will work wonders and the next act will certainly turn out to be an unforgettable one!

Moved to tears after hearing his heart wrenching sufferings and determination to “rise like phoenix from the ashes”, the drought stricken farmers get ready to start sowing  on parched lands!

This campaign will save lives of farmers as well earn the government people’s goodwill on Tactical governance.

Cleanliness:

If the nation has to be made as clean as a manicured nail’s underside, creating a overwhelming appeal is urgently needed. Gathering mass support is not that easy and people with star-power can easily pull that off and help the government in harnessing the much needed motivation.

For this effort, two types of E-stars are required. The mature yellow and hot, young blue types. An immediate list can be drawn in no time – watch TV ads for 15 seconds and you have the names in the bag. If you are in a hurry, the blue to red giant stars can be enrolled, to start with. 

Then a subtle nudge on industries to support this drive either overtly or covertly – to make their future ad clips with hot blue stars (eves in E-stars) wielding a broom or to actively sponsor a segment of the programme on any TV channel. Either way, the industries will get their money’s worth.

Though, no bar exists on a red super giant star sporting a broom with a manly voice (unlike those emotionless DD type announcers), it would be better to choose from the hot blue eE-stars, who stand by products ranging from dishwasher to diamonds. The brooms might look attractive in their hands.

The eve-stars wielding the broom are like the heavenly black holes – generate enormous heat (appeal) and leave a lasting impression (mass following).  

These ads & stars will do wonders for the drive. This preferential treatment might hurt the m –E stars, the yellow and red giants; after all they too are in the limelight – courtesy of shining e-E stars.

These macho stars’ impact might sound like a second string fiddle, yet compared with the noise of the politico band, it will be pleasant on the ears.

We all can join the celebration of ‘responsible social governance’. The government of the day benefits, without spending a rupee and the message reaches every nook and corner of the country.

Here a doubt arose in Tom’s mind – “what if Industries don’t come forward or the stars keep away from shoots”? An alternative emerged like a flash preceding the thunder – the rag pickers. An ad , shot in natural settings and with natural actors!

Visual impact is guaranteed but the ad will be like a Charlie Chaplin type silent version. Now the government can boast that it has brought up the message from grass roots to high rise towers. Who knows, this ad campaign might even end up with an award at Cannes.

Cleaner culture:

Not in the sense of pure air, water and un-adulterated food. The drive is aimed at weeding out criminal activities like smuggling & mugging.

The Captains, Colonels and Generals – not the army type but the filmy type male -E stars ,  can single handedly lend an admirable help in snuffing out  gold, diamond, sandalwood & red sander smugglers and
lodge them in jails. Of course after donning a black gown to get them sentenced as per law, but speedily.

Their qualification – defying gravity, ducking flying bullets and walking through, in shirt sleeves, an inferno – unscathed.
 Is it not ample enough? 

Their only handicap – all these have to be stage managed. Anyways, the law enforcing agencies being under tremendous pressure and short in man power, any idea is worth a try.

If it succeeds, then who will claim the credit? Whoever it is, the government can proudly take the credit – for ‘evolving culture governance’!

Your question is “what happened to the s-E stars”?

From the past to the present, the eve-E stars got attracted and attached to a few of these successful sportsmen, for the s-E star's value. Apart from these tabloid dreams, their competitive spirit is an asset. This spirit can be imparted, en mass, to the population and make the ‘wake up India’ campaign, an unprecedented success.

The government can loudly claim it as ‘society engineering'.

Tom is eagerly waiting for a feedback from the public and a pat from the government for suggesting novel campaigning methods! Anticipatimg a "...Sri", "..Bhushan" or "...vibhushan", has drawn up many more such programmes for implementation!

The Community Service – a Bystander reverie

Introduction:

The Justice system often comes out with a community service verdict, in place of a suspended jail term. The causative infringement might be a drunken driving, tax fraud or drug abuse. The natural doubt that arises in these cases is, whether this ‘serve the community’ sentence is reserved for only the celebrities or has universal applicability! Let us for the moment leave it to those Judges who deliver such sentences, hoping that overcrowding in  jails and avoiding financial burden to the state is their considerations.

A commune might have been an isolated human settlement, in the hoary past. Over a period of time, it must have become a community to mean any commune living in unity – for a purpose.

In this unified commune, every one contributed and did everything together with out drawing any distinction on the basis of skill sets or utility value. The main purpose, in those times and minds of people, was to ward of external challenges. This challenge came in the form of evil designs of expansion or suppression, from the neighbouring communes.

The prefix good or bad got slowly attached to the communes or communities like worms in an apple. The worm did its part to eat away at the apple, steadily. A separate kind of unity started raising its ugly head, amongst the bad communes, by discriminating on the basis of skill sets and utility quotient.

The earlier communes thus caused the initial damage – lacking the urge to exploit beyond a limited domain and focusing only on survival of the commune. Thank God! Lacking foresight, the compulsions of an electoral battle was not on their radars.

The communes that succeeded the earlier ones progressively developed ‘communities’ - a dogma based on greater deviousness in the art of exploitation and aggression. The stragglers – the remaining good communes, followed suit, albeit reluctantly, to defend their sovereignty and tried to close the gap between the good and the bad communes. The obvious reason – to void increased enmity and check the widening social chasm.

Thus one bad apple in the barrel managed to spoil the lot and in the bargain gave birth to a plethora of social problems – defying logic of mathematics - multiplication leading to division!

One would easily get inspired about this community service system, hearing about routine judgments handed down by presiding officers, in most of the western countries. I can empathise with your feelings, when western culture is easily adapted why not this kind of justice?

Have you forgotten the deep rooted VIP culture? If at all such a system is employed, you know who will benefit most!

Wait! Wait! I could hear your murmur- prison sans VIP will be devoid of glamour. It is unfair to award this community service sentence to those who are already doing ‘community service’ and is it not a double taxation? And how, tax evaders be awarded a community service sentence?

But, my friend don’t you have this dream  - fast track courts try scams, wilful loan defaults and quid pro quos. Yet, you have this fear of seeing such personalities sanitizing the hospital corridors, regulating traffic, spending time among hutment dwellers -- along with those others who aided and abetted in these crimes!

You are in a dilemma, is it not! You want their mischievous deeds to come out in the open and yet don’t want them to be seen in public under the garb of a community service sentence.

Now I can hear clicks and whirs out of your mind, loudly saying “I am right now confused and want to think about it little cautiously”

Saying “Let me know, when you come to conclusion” Bystander folded the Newspaper, came out of his reverie.