Scene-1: The Year is 2022
Aditya is 22 year old boy who is living in Chennai. Aditya could be any 22 year old living in any major Indian city. He is walking near the major market centre and people are pushing him trying to reach the Hotel which is making Pakodas. Actually it’s not Hotel but just some small eatery which makes tasty Pakodas. Today it’s 1st April so the Pakoda seller is selling Pakoda for Rs 150/- per plate but normally its Rs 300/- per plate, Aditya keeps thinking “Are these Pakoda sellers trying to pull off an April fool joke why are Pakoda sellers offering discounts today. These Pakoda sellers how I used to make Memes about them” Aditya kept thinking. Ever since he woke up this morning at night today Aditya mind has been going back to those years of 2017 and 2018.
Aditya thinks on one hand he gets WhatsApp message from his old group about how World famous economist R3 is talking in Chicago how beautiful India is after NYAY scheme is implemented and another economist G2 is talking in London about how India has ensured economic equality. G2 is also praising our PM Rahul for bold steps he took after he became PM in 2019 and she says Rahul cares for the poor much like his family members who have ruled India before him. Aditya is however confused “Why is plate of Pakoda costing Rs 300/- now and why is 1GB of internet costing Rs 50/- at night and Rs 100/- during the day now but it was so cheap during 2017-18. Also in summer we are getting power cuts can’t sleep if there is no fan or AC and yet the electricity bill is so high”.
Scene-2: The Year is 2018
Aditya has finished 12th standard and joined Bachelor course in management this year. Amma wanted him to join medicine or engineering so that she could brag about it within family and friends but he didn’t not get any seat from good college and Appa didn’t have money for management quota. So they decided that let Aditya do BBM and then do MBA hopefully but Aditya was not really interested in all these things. He had decided what he wanted to become.
He wanted to become a Standup Comedian. For now he has started his own meme page on Facebook and Instagram and also he had many followers on twitter (never mind if most of them were bots ). “Dai Adi after this Jio internet has come with these free offers all day long you are watching some comedians on YouTube and wasting your time what good can come out of this”, Appa asks Aditya. Aditya replies “Appa you are so old fashioned don’t you know these people they are from AIB, EIC etc one day I will also have my own shows”. “Kanna Adi learn some real skills so that you can earn living. All these things are just for time pass”. Adi‘s father told him.
Meanwhile Saroja our servant comes in with happy smile on her face. She informs us that her brother Shiva got loan for starting his own business and from tomorrow he will make Pakodas. Aditya can’t stop laughing. He remembers all those jokes those standup comedian have been making about Pakoda sellers and even he did few memes on the same topic. After Demonetization making jokes on pakoda sellers was the best way to attract traffic to his page. He can’t understand how his parents thought DeMo was a good move, after all it was topic for a butt of jokes for all comedians in AIB and EIC. Also, he never understood why his parents supported the PM and they kept saying you will not understand how bad things were before when there used to be scams like 2G etc. Then one day he got an email from organization called C-Analytical. They had business proposition for him. They need him to work for them on contract till May 2019 on behalf of very big client and the money offered was good. In the email he was informed that they had seen his meme page and very impressed by it so now they wanted to use that page on behalf of their client and they will also supply content. Also he needed to have more than 10-20 twitter handle’s so that they can create trends with hashtags.
Aditya accepted the offer and soon he started getting more traffic for his page. He had not told his parents about this but now things were getting serious after all he had to make memes and login to twitter with 20 different ids to manufacture Trends. His attendance in college dropped and so did his grades but who cares he thought I am on my way achieving my dream. Also, two of his favorite comedians had liked one of his memes about Aadhar card. However, one day something strange happened he made a meme on Rahul G but immediately got phone call from his contact from C-Analytical saying as per contract agreement you can’t make memes on Rahul G or anyone from his party. Aditya felt bit let down since Rahul G provided very good content for memes but thought it to be okay as he was getting paid, So why bother!
Scene- 3: April 1, 2019
Aditya had become full time meme generator. His parents were very upset that he had stopped going to college regularly but Aditya was happy since he was able to buy bike and was gifted latest i-Phone by his client. Aditya remembered that the contract was up to May 2019 and wondered after that what was he going to do next. He did bring up this topic with people from C-Analytical. They told him not to worry as they would make him the next Dhruv R. Aditya could not believe it! “That YouTube sensation Dhruv who makes videos sitting somewhere in Europe!” Then he was told, “Look we want you to highlight one very important scheme for our client called NYAY where all poor people will be given 6K per month”. Aditya whenever he went to college vaguely remembered about poverty and steps taken to overcome them but was never interested in such stuff so he thought what was so great about the idea of giving 6K per month to all poor. He was bit confused though since Rahul G’s sister Priyanka G V and Rahul kept telling different things at different times sometimes 6k sometimes 12k sometimes 72k and sometimes 72000 crores.
But Aditya thought if they could give money to poor; there will be no poor left in the country also he was thinking, now that even poor people could afford Jio Connection and they would visit his page; his page would be even more famous!
Scene-4: Year 2022
Aditya has paid for half plate of Pakodas from Saroja’s brother Shiva since he can’t afford full plate even after discount. Shiva is thinking how to run his business now. Aditya asks him about NYAY scheme. Shiva replies angrily, “That is only for the very poor as per Government I am not very poor but just poor whatever that means, that officer is demanding bribe to give income certificate for me if I need to qualify for that scheme. How can I give bribe when I am not able to make profits only. I am remembering the previous Government which had tried to do so much for people like us and yet we voted them out due to this NYAY scheme”.
Aditya wonders why shiva is not able to make profits even when the cost of Pakodas has gone up so much. He is thinking, “Should I also apply for BPL card, after that C-Analytical closed their business and went back to USA I am not getting any offers. I will somehow ask money from Appa and bribe that officer and get BPL card at least I will get some money”. Meanwhile Aditya gets another forward on WhatsApp about another economist Jean D talking about how India has achieved economic equality. He can’t download the video since his data pack will be over if he does so and he doesn’t have money to recharge.