Talk to God, Go to Vote !

After the regular status meeting, the Gods walked out of the meeting room. The God for Election, Electeshwar seemed to be depressed after the meeting. He was given such a target which he felt was almost impossible.The God for General Administration, Generaleshwar followed him to his desk. Electeshwar sipped the last bit of coffee in his coffee mug and slammed the coffee mug on to the table. Generaleshwar tried to console Electeshwar.

Generaleshwar : Dude, Nothing is impossible ! You will be able to meet the target.
Electeshwar : Don't know buddy. Getting to achieve 80% of election turnout in the Indian general elections 2014 is too much of an asking. Last time in 2009, there was only a turnout of less than 60%. The same trend has been repeating since several years. This is injustice towards me to put such a high target.
Generaleshwar : Too bad you had to face such a tough situation. But each of us have targets.
Electeshwar : True, but then, this is too much, After all even I am human !
Generaleshwar: Ha ha that was a good one, There in earth, humans are comparing themselves to Gods, and here you are a God, comparing yourself to humans !
Electeshwar : I feel too powerless.
Generaleshwar: But humans too have power.Think about a citizen. He has the power to vote. It is just that 40% doesn't even bother to use that power. Similarly to achieve this target you too have some power, which you have to use wisely. You just need some help to make yourself achieve it.


Electeshwar: Who would help me here?


Generaleshwar: I think God for Mobile Applications can help us here.


Electeshwar: Who? That fresher? The God who just joined a few years back? How does he help us experienced Gods?


Generaleshwar: Dude, Mobile applications are the new trend. Mobileshwar definitely has a great reach, that too to the youth of the country, who usually are the lazy ones to vote. So let's check with Mobileshwar if he has any idea to get the youth to vote this time.


Electeshwar: Okay, Let me call him then.


Meantime Mobileshwar was reading the prayer messages received in his We Chat account.His extension phone rang and he answered it.


Mobileshwar: Hello, Mobileshwar here.
Electeshwar: Hello  Mobileshwar, this is Electeshwar here. Can we have a quick meeting anytime when you are free?
Mobileshwar : Sure, I am free now. Why don't we meet at meeting room G?
Electeshwar: Okay , will come there now.


Electeshwar, Generaleshwar and Mobileshwar gathered at the meeting room G. Electeshwar explained about his situation, that he has to achieve a target of 80% turn out in the Indian general election 2014.He checked with Mobileshwar weather he could help Electeshwar achieve that target in any way.


Mobileshwar : Wow ! Electeshwar, this is one of the most challenging projects I have come across in my entire career.


Electeshwar laughed in his mind. ' This guy who is just 4 or 5 years old is talking big big words like challenging , career etc. Electeshwar looked at Generaleshwar and smiled. Generaleshwar reciprocated.


Mobileshwar : But as you told, I think this target can be achieved through mobile application campaigning.


Electeshwar : Okay,what is your game plan?


Mobileshwar : I could insert some software into each mobile phone campaigning the user to go and vote.I could send messages requesting the same.


Electeshwar: Sorry to interrupt you, but this is why we say experience counts. Campaigning is a process happening even before mobile phones were born. Sill it has not been able to attract a certain group of people to the polling booths.We need to get hold of those people. Campaigning through mobile phone will not have a huge impact, I feel.


Generaleshwar: I second Electeshwar.


Electeshwar : So I think, as our boss says, We need to think out of the box.


Mobileshwar: Okay , so we should think out of the box so that humans think into the box, into the ballot box ! Right?


Generaleshwar : ha ha, Spot On !

Electeshwar: But don't get your hopes high, what can this kid do?

Mobileshwar: Don't underestimate me. When the great God for Law and Justice could not solve the Delhi rape issue, I solved it for him. In fact I have had only one failure ever.

Electeshwar: What failure?

Mobileshwar: Oh that was impossible! God of Transportation asked me to solve the IRCTC problem. Leave the humans, even I am not successful in booking Tatkal tickets.. Getting people to vote is not that difficult.

Electeshwar, Generaleshwar : Ha ha, lol.

Electeshwar, Generaleshwar and Mobileshwar started thinking of innovative ways to attract Indian youth to vote through Mobile applications. After lots of thought process an idea got developed .

Electeshwar : The game plan is to make people want to vote. Offer them something for voting.

Generaleshwar : You mean bribing humans?

Electeshwar : Yes, in a way. Until now it has been the humans bribing us,'will offer prayers if I get this, will do pooja in if I get good marks and blah blah..'. It's time we start bribing them to meet our needs.

Generaleshwar: That is a good point.

Mobileshwar: Well, even I feel that it is a great idea, and a mobile app can be used for the same. A 'Talk to God' App.

Generaleshwar: Okay, Sounds interesting, Can you explain?

Mobileshwar: Sure.'Talk to God' App is one which will be present in all mobile phones. This is a medium where we communicate with humans. They add prayers list which we can see. And we add To do Lists for each of them. Those are the tasks that we want humans to do.If they believe in God, they would all try to do that. They get points for each item done in their respective to do lists.Each day, based on the progress of the to do list progress, one of their wish may come true. The catch here is that, it is not a definite thing that their dreams will come true.But it is definite that their dreams will not come true if they do not do their tasks. Something close to that Karma concept.

Electeshwar : Also there will be a limit to the number of wishes a human can upload in one day. So they have to select their wishes carefully.

Mobileshwar:Maybe we can also give a special blessing for the best wish of each day. To make them wish more responsibly. 

Generaleshwar: Wow this is huge. We will have take approval from the God Board of Directors for this. I don't think after my predecessor sanctioned the writing of the Vedas, we have tried to engage humans in such a way. We are all getting a salary hike for sure!!

Electeshwar: Very true, and Dude Mobileshwar, I am really impressed by your general knowledge and problem solving skills.

Mobileshwar : Thanks.So this is an app that can be used for not just this project, but any future projects.

Generaleshwar: Oh wait, All these looks good. But what about the negative scenario? The ones who does not believe in us. They may not even bother to look at this app.

Electeshwar : As far as I understand, this app will make the relationship between humans and us more transparent. Even for non-believers there would be to do lists and in case they are living their life accordingly, we wouldn't bother to bother them.Let them stand up to their beliefs. But if they are not doing the tasks they are supposed to do, we send them warnings. And after 3 times warnings are ignored, Crash! Direct action taken. Based on the priority and severity of the task. I don't think I need to explain to you guys how to execute the punishment.

Generaleshwar: Looks like a great plan. Once we start implementing it, we may get better ideas to update the app.

Mobileshwar: True. Lets start off with this now !

All 3 Gods shook hands and dispersed to their respective desks. Having got a plan to meet his target, Electeshwar was a much relieved man now.

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Jay was hurrying home. He was expecting a telephone interview any time. But the battery charge in his phone was dying.”God, please let me reach home fast !”

His phone beeped. He checked the status bar and saw a new software installation happening.

“Talk to God App, What is this?”, he talked to himself as he touched on the App symbol.

“Do you believe in God?”, it asked.He clicked the Yes button.

The App then displayed ,”To do List: Vote for the Indian General Elections 2014”

“Definitely, I was already planning to vote this time”, he said to himself as he cursed himself for not charging his phone at the right time that now he may miss a much awaited interview.

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“So, this guy will vote”, Electeshwar winked at Mobileshwar.

Mobileshwar: So what gift will he get for taking this decision?

Electeshwar: He will already have got an SMS from the company that the interview is postponed by 1 hour. He now has enough time to recharge his phone and attend the interview .

Electeshwar and Mobileshwar hi- fied each other and walked towards the pantry. Generaleshwar joined them and they 3 happily discussed about all things above the sky ! Release is over, Now its time for some office time gossipping !


This is a submission for the 'Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps' contest in Indiblogger.