Me and Shongita, we were returning from a distant city. We had gone there to attend an Author’s Meet. Though the Meet wasn’t so fruitful, we were able to interact with few budding authors. I wouldn’t exactly call it a productive day. On our return we had booked a bus that would leave around 7pm and we boarded the bus at about 6.30pm.
Looking at half an hour before the bus started its journey to my home town. I got off for a smoke and cup of tea. I picked few packets of chips and chocolates to chew during our travel. I don’t know why I picked up a newspaper as well, but I did pick it up.
Shongita’s eyes were wide at the packets when I handed them over… they were something she loved. She eagerly opened one of the chips packet for starters and offered one chip to me when her sight fell on the newspaper I had picked up and looked at me as if I had made a huge blunder. I looked at her inquisitively to understand her reaction…
“PD, it is almost dark and the lights in the bus will be off when we travel… Do you think you would be able to read this newspaper? And if you think of reading it tomorrow, it will be stale…”
“I guess I didn’t realize that… I just picked it up as a habit.” I confessed truthfully to her lilting laughter and shaking of her head even as the bus started off on its journey. She was correct in her inference, the lights inside the bus indeed were turned off and it was pretty dark and there was no chance to read anything. A few minutes passed as we looked at the bright lights of the city and shops and buildings as we passed through the city. Soon, we left the city behind and it really was one odd light between the dark fields which loomed up intermittently.
“You know…” Shongita said and looked at me, “I love the way you write to describe situations and the stories you think of… I want to write like you do.”
“You have flair to write.” I told her truthfully, “I have read the article you wrote ‘Ratings and Effects’ on the website. You can be a good author if you put your mind to it.”
“All I can think of is romance. I can’t think of thrilling conspiracies like you…” she countered, “Can you tell me how you think of all those conspiracies?”
I looked at her and thought for a moment, “Ok… Here’s a thought for you… At dead of night when the road is lonely and the street lights are a bit distant and flickering, a teen girl is briskly walking on that desolate road…”
“What about it?” she asked thinking I was going to relate a story.
“No… I am not going to tell you a story. I want you to think. Why is that girl out on a desolate road walking briskly in the dead of night…”
“Perhaps… she is going to elope with her lover…” she tried imagining the situation.
“Good for a start – what else can the situation be?”
“She thinks she is being followed by her family to stop her from doing that for they don’t like the boy she loves…”
“There you go… you have a story which passed your mind just thinking about the situation. Now if you add pre and post the situation, I believe you will have a great story.” I said pointing out to the imaginations she was trying to develop. She smiled a bit satisfied and started thinking more on those lines then looked at me a bit disappointed…
“All I can think of a story is romantic of how they met and fell in love and how when the families stood against their love, they decided to elope… Can’t think about any conspiracy…”
I thought for a moment and looked at her, “Let’s play a game of thinking fictitious conspiracies – that will enable you to start thinking how conspiracies are thought of in fiction…”
“How do we do that? Are you going to give me situations and make me think about them?”
“No… we both will think of possible conspiracies…”
“What will be the topic?”
“Not a single topic – it will be topics…” I looked at her quizzed expression, “Here’s an idea… In this dark we will point to a random space on the newspaper. Then in the flashlight of mobile we will read the headline of what we have pointed and build a conspiracy theory and possible action that could be taken as a remedy for that conspiracy…”
“Great idea – that will pass this time of our travel in a more interesting way… I will start. Give that newspaper to me – I will point out first and you think of the conspiracy theory.”
“This is for you to think not me…” I objected.
“Ladies first…” she giggled and decided where to point on the front page of the newspaper and put a finger randomly on the newspaper, “Ok… I have chosen the news item – put on the flashlight of your mobile and check what it is about…”
I put on the flashlight and together, we looked at the news item she had pointed… It was about the Sanction by NATO on the Oil Refinery of India based in Gujarat citing it was for curbing the Russia Ukraine war by tightening Russia’s economy…
“So – What kind of conspiracy can you think of in this case?” she asked me looking expectantly for something thrilling…
“Well … this news item does not have the thrilling theme of fiction conspiracy. This is sheer geo-politics. However, we can try and think of a conspiracy theory in such a scenario. What conspiracy can you think of in this case?” I asked her to see a face which was non-confirmative to any thought…
“Ok… I can think of multiple scenarios in this move by NATO.”
“I can only see what the report says… Curbing Russia’s economy so that the War can be stopped…”
“Sweetheart – you are too naïve and gullible to believe what the news item looks like… no wonder you can think only of romance as your stories. You need to look beyond what is being said and done…”
“How?” she was a bit irritated at my remark that she could think only of romance and nothing else and was wide eyed to understand what I could think of…
“See – to formulate a conspiracy theory in Geo-politics you have to first hear out the theories placed forth by various sources – be it Western media, Russian Media, Chinese Media, Indian Media and likewise… Then you got to analyse which theories to base your fiction theory… then let your imagination flow… for example, I don’t take the words of Western or Chinese media as they are – both have agenda filled to brim in their reports. This is an age of information warfare – incorrect planted information and economic strategies damages a country more than actual war will damage it. That is why you see false news being served on the platter of vehement belief that the agenda news is the correct news and people fall for that… Look at it… during Operation Sindoor by India on Pakistan – the world media was saying that Indian jets had fallen and the number cited were different by different media houses. Now we know that they were duds, the decoy drones which had fallen. All Indian jets never crossed the border to be targeted by the enemy.”
“Yes – I can see that and understand that…” she said getting more interested in the topic now.
“Why, some media houses in USA I heard first reported that it was a criminal act when few ‘criminals’ had butchered tourists at Pahalgam… then they slowly came out with the word ‘Militants’ and finally they had to admit that it was a terrorist attack… I felt like retaliating my way with the words when I heard the word ‘criminals’ for terrorists…”
“I know you” she said smiling at what I could probably say in such a case however she wanted to hear it out from me “What could have been your retaliation?”
“If I was attached to a media house, I would have called Osama Bin Laden a common car thief who wanted to graduate into an aeroplane thief and he had sent his thugs to steal the aeroplanes. Unfortunately, they couldn’t fly the planes and as common car thieves end up crashing the car onto some pillar, thus the planes they were flying crashed into twin towers…”
She laughed at the anger I showed on the western media who always seem to demean and distort the news in India according to the deep state that runs and funds them.
“Jokes apart, I follow news – rather analysis of events around the world by various – so called analysts, half of who also take money to analyse the events that way their sponsors want them to… look at them in a neutral way and you will start enjoying how they spread and propagate their individual agendas… Look at the Pakistan media – their agenda is stuck on how Indian Hindu government is torturing Muslim population whereas the conditions show that it is not the truth… It says that common Hindu population treats Muslims like secondary citizens and are racial in their approach… all lies. But saying it over and over again can make gullible population in the World think that what is being said by Pakistani media may be true – by saying it over and over again – you actually can make gullible people believe that even a blatant lie is nothing but the truth…”
“So true…” she observed, “and people do fall for such propaganda. Look at few people on YouTube… they earn money by spreading nothing but lies and propaganda.” She now seemed to understand the point I was driving at…
“So – coming back to the discussion where it started – what do you think what is it that caters to the economy of the west?”
“Products like coke, pepsi, zara, mebeline, etc…” she answered me absentmindedly.
“No. Those are secondary – a show that these products are the mainstay of the western economy. The main sources to the economy… are the weapons they sell to warring countries. The products like Zara are manufactured in China and then they are distributed by the West. They manufacture most of their top of the line brands in countries like China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia and likewise who manufacture these under a license and hand it over so that these can be sold to the world as authentic branded products at exorbitant cost. To tell you the fact I had bought two identical sacks – one branded and the other locally manufactured at Ulhasnagar… guess what, the branded sack deteriorated in few days while the locally manufactured sack I threw off in disgust because it refused to deteriorate over years. I was sick of carrying the same sack over and over again…”
“That’s true… this is the third bag of Zara in this year which I have purchased because they tore off or as you said deteriorated in few months. I think I will try something locally manufactured next time…”
“Coming back – as I said it is the weapon industry that gives them their economy. How much money do you think can a bag from Zara get? Peanuts… the weapons give lots and lots of money. The products like Zara or the other beauty products like Nivea are not used by them so much – they are sold in countries like ours where they have spread the myths like fair is beautiful… in other words become fair, dark may not be considered as beautiful. Who says dark skin is not beautiful… look at the dark skinned film stars – are they called dusky beauties not for nothing? They are far too attractive to be overlooked.”
“True…” she was trying to absorb the thought process I was going through.
“So coming back to the topic… Weapons are something that is running their economy. Look at it… everything was normalising. They put it in Zelensky’s mind that Ukraine should join NATO fully aware that Russia will not like this move for this will bring NATO on Russia’s doorstep. Ukraine was neutral and not a part of any group. This was shown as almost done which prompted Russia to invade Ukraine. The NATO then funded Ukraine with money to buy weapons and sold their weapons to Ukraine. Simply put, they are giving money with their right hand and putting the money in their left pocket by selling arms and ammunition to Ukraine. This is leaving Ukraine not only devastated by attack of Russia but also is crushing it under the debt of the NATO – especially USA. This they will recover from Ukraine by plundering the natural resources of Ukraine, namely the rare earth material because at the end of this war Ukraine will be left with nothing and that too at their terms and conditions and the price they will quote. A win-win situation, right?”
“Amazing analysis of the situation… you and your fiction mind…” she wondered at what I had said.
“Now – who else is a fantastic player in weapons and a competition? It is Russia… they sell a lot of weapons to many countries around the globe… India has bought a lot of weapons from Russia and few from France and other countries before we started to manufacture indigenous weapons of quality. Think about this, had we not started manufacturing indigenous weapons of quality, we would have been stuck for weapon supplies during Operation Sindoor. Russia engulfed in war would not have been in position to supply weapons as they themselves are using them and whatever they manufacture are being used against Ukraine… it would have been advantage to Pakistan and the outcome would have been serious than we can imagine. So to deplete Russia’s weapons and also test them in case of a world war, this war against Ukraine was forced upon Russia. It is actually a war between the NATO and Russia. What NATO also wanted to do is defeat Russia and takeover the Russian weapon manufacturing or shut down their weapon manufacturing so that NATO is the only group selling arms and ammunition worldwide. These sales would run their economy.”
“Why sanctions on Indian refinery?” she asked a bit quizzed not really understanding the relation of Russia-Ukraine war with India…
“Look at this – they were not concerned with India they were going behind Russia and China. China recently was promising to take over the weapon market. It was aggressively trying to sell its weapons worldwide… be it their missiles, tanks or their antimissile defence and was threatening the market of NATO. However, Operation Sindoor changed the entire scenario… In less than 80 hours, India displayed what indigenous weapons manufactured here can do. Indian weapons not only had been effective against the Chinese and Turkish drones but also India had failed whatever air defence systems Pakistan had borrowed from various countries including NATO. India hit Pakistan at will and NATO was worried that Indian systems will expose the weak links of weapons they had provided. This will be studied by Russia and China giving them a thought for how to counter NATO weapons. China was sore at the expose of their weapons during this operation that is why the false news about falling of multiple Rafael aircrafts was being propagated. The actual hurt was their fighter aircrafts were exposed and China was and is losing the world market – so is NATO. The buyers of the World are now interested in Indian weapons. India is emerging as a fantastic player in the sale of weapons – NATO’s mainstay is being challenged…”
“Proud of my India.” She said with pride.
“So how can you curb the rise of India in this market… definitely you cannot show the world that you fear a fierce completion from someone who don’t consider as competition in this field… Sanction something which won’t hurt you and make the world feel that this is to stop a war that’s been going on for almost 3 years. Make world feel that it is India who is supporting Russia by heavily buying oil from Russia. The fact is what India buys is for domestic use and the quantity India buys from Russia in a month is equal to purchase of Russian oil by NATO in one day. I believe Indian diplomats have pointed this out to the double faced deep state of NATO…”
“Can’t India do something against this double faced sanction?”
“Indian government is doing what it can – however – we as citizens of India can do much more. We have to understand the collective strength we possess…”
“What can simple citizens do… I mean we are not even trained soldiers.” She looked at me thinking what was in my mind.
“The collective strength of Indian citizens is simply devastating for anyone in the World to instigate… When China tried mischief in Galvan during Chinese virus lockdown… The citizens of India voluntarily and without any Government directives, decided to ban Chinese goods. That is something which hit China’s economy and made China go on the back foot. China couldn’t keep quiet so it decided to help Pakistani terrorists and Pakistan which was evident during Operation Sindoor. Similarly during this operation we Indians clearly saw that Turkey and Azerbaijan sided with Pakistan and we as Indian citizens decided to boycott any product from these two countries and you can see the effects. We ought to realize what we Indians collectively can do… Can we not voluntarily boycott goods manufactured by NATO and hurt their economy?”
“Yes we can.” There was a resolve in her voice.
“Think of it – how much money we give to these NATO countries by buying their products for show of fashion which are actually not required by us… Why a bag from Zara – support bags manufactured locally. The family of those people will bless you. Simply Google the information of the product and look at the Country of Origin – you will be surprised to know that India runs economies of most NATO countries by buying their products. Check how many bottles of Coke are sold in India in one day. Imagine if one rupee per bottle goes to Coke USA, how many millions of Rupees are we giving to USA. Think about other products. You will be stunned at the figures you calculate. Can’t we simply stop buying those and revert to Indian ones. Let’s say we stop buying their cosmetics and revert to the age old beauty techniques we followed for more than tens of thousands of years. We don’t need Maybelline mascara – this technique is originally from India called Kajal and it’s healthy for the base of Kajal is Ayurvedic. Think about it… We ourselves can grow this country rich by buying our own indigenous products than spending money on these double faced NATO nations… point to ponder…”
She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, “Yes… though I love these brands, I will make it a point to buy Indian products.”
“Good girl…” I had appreciation for this decision of hers, “I could convince one Indian – I wish I was an influencer – I would have been able to convince many others and stirred a movement which would affect NATO and make them realize that India is a straight country and double faced relations angers common Indians.”
She was about to say something when the bus halted to pick up and drop some local parcels. I got out of the bus and filled my lungs with a welcome smoke knowing that Shongita will not stop and will want to know much more…
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