(39 days ago on this blog, I had done an open evaluation of God’s performance thus far. The results were appalling. As a consequence, the CEO of Universe, Inc., Mr.God, had to be sacked, and as its self-appointed Chairman, I had promised you that I will find a better alternative soon. So, here I am.)
Honestly, I didn’t know it would be this tough. I had foolishly assumed that it would be easy to pick a God from the many that exists in this world already.
“In the extreme case of none befitting my high standards, how long would it take to create a new one!” I had even boasted to a friend.
“It would certainly be easier than creating babies, though not as pleasurable!” I had joked.
“After all, I didn’t need a partner for this, and didn’t have to depend on her not having a headache!” we had laughed.
I was so so wrong.
Clearly, finding a common God has got to be the toughest job in this Universe.
Compared to this, God’s Creation of Man seems like kindergarten stuff- which he made a mess of, by outsourcing its mass production to Adam & Eve with absolutely no quality checks in place.
Ever since then, man has been trying to recreate his creator. It led to theories, stories and trouble. What started off as plain curiosity, soon became an obsession, then a business, and later a convenient excuse for the cunning.
But hopefully, we are past all that muddled religious times, and are ready for a more homogeneous and meaningful belief, starting now.
Yes, I have good news in this context.
(You may now rise, and get ready for a standing ovation as the announcement follows.)
Ladies and gentlemen, our eons-long search is over. I have found a new God; not just for me, but for you and for this Universe.
A more capable, proven and result-oriented God.
Someone you can touch, listen to and talk to.
Someone who will answer your prayers, guide you and correct you in real time.
Someone who will encourage no religious fundamentalism and terrorism, and make everyone accept the theory of One World One God.
A God who will be not mine, yours or theirs, but ours.
(Applause here.)
I am as proud of the process as I am of the result.
In keeping with the democratic traditions of a civilised world, I had asked all the people I could meet in January this year for their best choice, for the Universe’s top post.
By simple computation, I arrived at the winner.
And then, true to the traditions of the developed world, I vetoed it, to nominate a God who I think will be better than the popular choice.
Before I say who it is, let me, in classic reality show style, announce the results starting with the bottom choice first.
In the fifth position with merely 3% votes is The Saint!
Shocking, how he, who I thought would be the most obvious successor to God by virtue of being No.2 in the pecking order of divinity, has been unceremoniously relegated to the bottom of the pile. Perhaps, making the blind see, getting the lame to walk and parting the seas no longer impress the generation that has been brought up on astounding special effects.
Also, how long can people keep watching saints perform miracles on others?! The message from them is loud and clear- “Miracles are useless unless it is happening to us. Until then, it is just a magic show.”
In the fourth position with 7% votes is this never-say-die creature who has the knack of popping up in any poll- The Politician!
That he features in this list, is no surprise. That he features higher than The Saint, surely is.
It is a hint that the job of God is a political one.
God’s tact of fueling faith through hopes and promises, and keeping that belief intact even in the face of his colossal failure and pathetic performance, is an art best practised by the politician.
“If that’s so, why not get the professional for the job?” a few seem to suggest.
In the third position with 10% votes is The Corporate Honcho!
Coming to think of it, he is actually a politician dressed in business suit who communicates through PowerPoint presentations.
He features higher than the politician only because he has turned greed into a virtue and made it a result-oriented business science.
Also, unlike the politician, the business head converts detractors into accomplices by sharing his loot with them, and respectfully calling that shareholding.
So, a vote for the businessman is a vote, I suspect, for a share in God’s profits.
In the second position with 12% votes is The Superhero!
He is everything you want your God to be. He’s there whenever you need him, to save you from distress and the world from annihilation. To add to it, there’s mystery around his real identity that adds to the aura.
I guess the only reason why he didn’t become the top choice is because it is difficult to imagine a batmobile traversing the narrow and overcrowded bylanes of Mumbai or Bangkok. Or the Spiderman answering an Arab’s call for help in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Where will he swing his web from?
And Superman? Well, it is kind of difficult to have faith in a God who wears his undies outside, no?
Finishing in the first position with 68% votes, ladies and gentlemen, is my poll’s winner, The Individual!
This one was the most unexpected. But I should have guessed. After all, who is going to miss an opportunity to vote for himself as the most powerful dude in the Universe?!
But in a way, this reiterates what the world’s most ancient philosophy says: “Your search for the greatest and the most powerful will take you all over, and finally bring you back to yourself. For, there’s no one who can change you, protect you and evolve you better than yourself. You are the best God there could ever be.”
I agree.
But as its self-appointed Chairman, I can’t have 7 billion CEOs for this Universe.
I need one.
So, I vetoed the poll verdict and continued my search.
The answer of all important searches in life is always at the last place you look for.
I went looking for a common God all over the Universe, when it was actually in my hands- in our hands.
Not figuratively, literally.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, the new God is an App!
The new temple is the Smart Phone!
It is as individual as it can get and as mass as you want it to be.
It has unprecedented universal acceptance, and is today the world’s fastest growing religion.
With the youth as its evangelists, it surely is only going to grow wider and faster.
But does it play God?
Of course, it does.
It’s omnipresent, staying with you all the time. Always accessible, always responding to your requests.
Isn’t “Seek and ye shall find, ask and ye shall be provided!” truer of your app-loaded smart phone than of any God you have known?
If God’s job is to keep you away from evil, then don’t you think that the phone has done that in double good measure?
I don’t have statistics, but I am certain that since the advent of the smart phones, the youth have lesser time and interest in other things. Parents will vouch for that.
If there’s still drugs and crime in this world, it must be thanks to those who don’t have smart phones yet, or those who haven’t loaded enough apps yet.
I am not saying it is all there. But it surely has the most potential.
Imagine an app where you could feed the values you want to adhere to. Such a smart app can actually prevent you from all things evil.
So, as you talk, the app can beep your cuss words, distract you when you lose your temper or warn you when you write a nasty message.
An app that will automatically dial a number in your phone book after a pre-fixed number of days, just to keep you in touch with each other. So there’s no drifting apart in relationships ever.
An app that will have no ego in sending out a “I am sorry if I hurt you” message to someone you have had a silly fight with.
It’s a God who will make tangible changes to our lives.
It’s exciting, entertaining and very personal.
But you know what really makes it the best new God of this Universe?
It just doesn’t inspire fanaticism.
No one’s going to wage a war in the name of an app. Or blow himself up just because you criticised it.
It needs no priest, no saint, no middleman.
Across caste, colour, creed and gender, there would be one app.
One World, One App.
Nothing called children of a lesser app.
It is everything God and religion were meant to be, but weren’t.
Get converted. Go download.
In conversation with myself 