A Story of Two Apps

A Story of Two Apps Present day Shenzhen, China Shenzhen lies in the neighborhood of Hong Kong, neatly nestled in the Pearl River estuary, showcasing the gleaming monument of the phenomenal Chinese economic miracle. Way back in 1980 before the country embarked upon opening up and introduced economic reforms, the township wore a dull and desultory look with a mere 60,000 inhabitants, struggling to find its place under the sun. Today, it is a mega city dotted with skyscrapers and entrepreneurs, with a gargantuan inflow of foreign capital. It has emerged as a major technological hub housing nearly twelve million people. The city has leapfrogged into the economic stratosphere of the world over the last three decades. The transfiguration has been from iron-fisted communism to breathtaking market communism, from decadence to opulence. And yes, in this churning, women entrepreneurs, in particular, have emerged and come to the fore as the economic space widens to the fairer sex. The weather was salubrious at twenty-nine degrees Celsius, sometime on a mid-September day. The other parameters read: precipitation thirty percent, humidity levels at seventy-eight percent and wind velocity eighteen kilometers per hour; in short, all the makings of a perfect day for the denizens of this burgeoning city to go about their daily chores. Xi Xiao Ming with an erect spine and wearing loose fitting clothes, was firmly perched on a low platform, alert and sporting a wide smile. A marathon session of the ancient practice of Tai Chi, followed by the equally ancient Indian practice of yoga and breathing techniques had been rounded off with deep meditation along with her seven tutees. As the intense session arched towards a climax, in the background strains of the pristine Shanti mantra echoed and filtered through the house. “Lokāh samastāh sukhino bhavantu. Om shanti, shanti, shantihi.” “May all beings everywhere be happy and free.” “While chanting this mantra let us try to feel deeply for all living beings, and make a resolve to live in this selfless spirit. May peace and harmony prevail.” “Take a deep breath in and breathe out. Take another breath in … breathe out completely. When you feel complete, whole and at peace, become aware of your body and surroundings and very gently you may open your eyes,” uttered a soothing male voice. The voice had a profound, magical impact on the teacher and her tutees. They looked radiant, like fresh dew on rose petals, absolutely pristine. “Hmmm, today is the last day of this power-packed programme. We practiced Tai Chi, yoga, breathing exercises and deep meditation. These six days passed by like the clappers,” Xiao Ming addressed the small gathering. The plenteous and swanky house of Xiao Ming was located in an upmarket area of Shenzhen. The hum-drum of the city apparently did not interrupt the hush and shush of the six-day meditation programme. “You know these six days have passed by in a jiffy and the credit goes to all of you,” said Ming in her soft, soothing voice. “So why don’t we share our experiences? How the last six days have been? It will serve as a testimonial for me to spread awareness about the prowess of meditation, breathing techniques and launch further programmes among others. What do you say? Do you find any difference at all?” What had started as an amorphous group, evolved into a cohesive unit over six days. The group included atheists, agnostics, technocrats and Buddhists. Most of them subscribed to an overlapping of more than one thought process. Guo Ping, Liang Hua, Xu Zhi Jun, Yu Cheng Dong, Xu Wen Wei, Ren Zheng Fei and Meng Wan Zhou, the seven tutees were top honchos led by one of their group leaders, Ren Zheng Fei of the largest Internet and technology companies in the country and the world’s biggest investment corporation. Xiao Ming, with her background in the field of technology, could establish an immediate connect with the participants. The enormously trim and energetic, Ren Zheng Fei summarized the experiences of the tech-savvy and quick-witted group. “Well, truth be told, initially we all were apprehensive about yoga, meditation and breathing techniques. All of us are of course familiar with Tai Chi. I footslog on the treadmill and work on the elliptic bedsides following a regime of several rounds of pushups and crunches. So, my energy levels are pretty high, even if I say so myself!” Zheng Fei smiled at his audience and continued, “However this course opened several apertures of our mind. We feel much calmer, with our frayed nerves soothed and soft. We all felt blank, peaceful, and are in better control of our emotions.” Liang Hua added, “Some of us had experiences like floating amidst the clouds, seeing our ancestors, and parachuting towards an apogee. We thought such a thing to be weird, almost like voodoo, but then they merely passed away and we returned back to our selves. In the meditation sessions we all felt that the mammoth, azure sky was our mind and the clouds like thoughts that appeared and disappeared. We felt tranquil at the end.” “This unique programme would certainly enhance the productivity levels of those employed in tech companies and engineering firms. The clarity in thought process of the executives would grow manifold,” chipped in Guo Ping, the youngest of the group. As the participants shared their experiences, Ming felt ecstatic seeing their faces. Guo Ping and Xu Zhi Jun quickly set up the table for the pot-luck dinner. The hot pot was brought in from the kitchen and bowls, napkins and chop sticks placed to one side. Around the hot pot were placed a variety of delicious dishes, all vegetarian in keeping with the requirements of the programme. The ravenous lot devoured delicacies such Qīngjiāo tǔdòu sī (stir fried potatoes with green peppers), sù jiǎozi (veg dumpling), xiānggū qīngcji (green vegetables with mushroom), dì sān xiān (stir-fried potatoes, aubergine and sweet peppers), gān biān dòu jiǎo (Sichuan dry-fried green beans), chǎo dòuyá (stir-fried bean sprouts) and liáng bjn huáng guā (cucumber salad) awaited the hungry group. As they gathered again for the final instructions to mark the conclusion of the programme, Xiao Ming explained that each one of them should strive to inculcate four aspects in their lives - calmness in the mind, peace in the heart, silence in thoughts and ensure goodness and kindness in all deeds and actions. X-axis: Time in years Y-axis: Factors in life (Absence of siblings, poverty, no peace of mind, reliable relationships etc.) The point of inflection was our inherent sadness and we are in quest of happiness. Xiao Ming elaborated, “Well, we all have misadventures in life alongside numerous achievements. Someone looks for an emotional succor in a lover or a sibling. Many a time despite superabundance in our lives we feel certain lack. Fundamentally it is inherent in human nature to postpone the emotional quotient of happiness to a future date. This programme transmutes your thought process to reach the summit of happiness called NOW.” Xi’an, 1983 It was the Year of the Pig, 1983, and Xi Xiao Ming was born on the fifteenth of August. It happened to be the double Seventh Day, a day which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Xiao Ming pined to have a sibling with whom she could share her inner wounds, feelings, lack of wealth and emotional privation besides her ever-growing aspirations. As an atheist, she had no one, no external force with whom she could share and unburden her heart. Eventually she resigned to not having a sibling. Her father a coal miner was desperate to acquire wealth in life. Her parents ignited the spark of aspirations and millions of dreams in her. Once they realized that she was not just an average student, they decided that she would fulfil all their aspirations, helping them become prosperous and triumphant. The star-struck daughter obediently followed her tender but stentorian father and absorbed various facets of this masterpiece (Art of War by Sun Tsu) to combat challenges in her life. Xiao Ming decided that come what may, she would not capitulate to any adverse situation in life. In her arsenal were the troika consisting of Communist Party manifesto, Sun Tsu’s treatise Art of War and a few writings on the Chinese Premier Xi Jing Ping which inspired her to conquer the world despite all the troubles in her life. Xiao Ming had had a roller coaster ride. She failed the first time she applied at Tsinghua University Computer Science programme. A dejected Xiao Ming then applied to an airline as well as the police force too, but didn’t succeed at either. Her parents exerted incredible pressure on her, as they saw their plans going awry. She was even turned down by KFC! On her second try, she succeeded in getting into the Tsinghua University Computer Science department. Xiao Ming missed not having a sibling very much. She wanted someone to share her innermost feelings, like an irregular menstrual cycle, severe cramps in her stomach during the cycles, some rashes appearing on her body in the highly competitive environment of the world. The all-round mediocrity she saw was mind numbing. The only saviors, the cushions were her two precious dolls, Bao and Bai, which were gifted to her by her parents. They were her only companions in life with whom she would share all her emotions; all her successes and the stories of her failures and secrets too apart from the troika which provided her an intellectual comfort. This gave her the idea gave birth to a start-up, where an app could provide all the comfort of a non-existent sibling. Hence, she registered her start-up by the name of, Xiōngdì Technologies. ‘Xiōngdì’, signifying the sibling that she never had. Every time she would think about her start-up, she would have visions of how it would help people. She envisioned a girl invariably harassed by the family, deprived of sharing these negative thoughts with anyone. But with this app she could interact with it and it would act as a stress buster. The app would almost be humanoid. It would be brimful of emotions and successful in providing comfort when required. It would act as a sibling, for anyone who wished to have one! Xiao Ming’s team was working at a furious pace to develop the app. She was regurgitating Sun Tzu’s The Art of War specifically reading through the treatise focusing on the chapters of Positioning, Directing, Weak and Strong Points. There were certain pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of the app that required urgent attention. After the launch Bao Bia app stormed Chinese markets as a humungous number of youngsters who pined for a sibling acquired the product. The stocks of Xiōngdì Technologies skyrocketed and so did the personal popularity of the charming lady. Bao Bia app not only provided succour to Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and Alpha in quest of their siblings, but also could capture data about all users, their families, interests, religions if they professed and more importantly their political ideologies. This unnerved the government, which banned the app and paid a hefty compensation to Xiao Ming only to erase her from public memory. Winsome Chinese Techie who rose from penury to dizzy heights hit nadir once again. One night as she was sulking in a dark corner of her opulent flat in a state of stupor happened to watch an Indo- Chinese film on the story of Xuan Zang, a Buddhist Monk who travelled westwards to India 1400 years ago braving all adversities in search of pristine Buddhist texts. Xiao Ming was singularly impressed with the movie and the life of Xuan Zang. Though an atheist she decided to make a pilgrimage to the Phoenix Temple Hangzhou and sat at the feet of Buddha seeking some answers to her botheration’s. As she kept ruminating,” Why do such things happen with me?”. Suddenly a Buddhist Monk appeared and blessed her, gave her a flower and disappeared. The Chinese woman turned around and was startled to see the Buddhist Monk turn into Buddha and the idol of Buddha transfigured into a bearded holy man clad in white. She researched and discovered such men clad in white perhaps lived in India and Xuan Zang’s movie was a signal for her to travel to India in search of the “bearded man clad in white.” The techie travelled all the way to India with Bao Bai and the troika hunting for the bearded gentleman. After travelling months from Himalayas to several shrines, various religious spots in India she landed at the International Ashram of Art of Living, Bengaluru where she saw the picture of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on a hoarding and exclaimed, “Yes, he is the bearded man clad in white.” Soon she underwent the Happiness Programme and was blown away by learning the rhythmic breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya. The breathing process eliminated stress, high anxiety levels and negative emotions like anger and deep frustration. She stayed on in the Ashram to undertake other courses offered by the foundation and could feel the disappearance of her irregular menstrual cycle, the severe cramps accompanying it and the rashes on her body. She felt light as a feather with dew on petals. Xiao Ming did not have a personal encounter with Gurudev. One evening during Satsang, the Master singled her out and asked her to narrate her journey in life. She was stunned and wept inconsolably and amidst widespread applause she shared her story. “Become an Art of Living Teacher and serve the society,” Gurudev advised her. Some years later Once Xiao Ming returned home after her sojourn westwards, she went about her next project. Xiao Ming now firmly believed one thing was an absolute necessity in everyone’s life - a Master or Guru. In all earnestness she set about the task and very soon a crowd sourced app was ready. This was an app, which in the era of Kalyuga would act as ballast, a cushion for all those gone astray, in fact to ensure no one went astray. The Guru app played the role of the Master. The Guru comforted, guided and transformed the lives of millions across the world. The app already had the approval of the Chinese Government as it saw it as useful for arresting the flagging moral values in China’s social fabric, and to prevent the angry middle class from crumbling under the weight of a deepening social crisis and economic downturn. Having felt the pains of an ageing society, the country had to abandon the Mao’s one-child policy. More importantly, it was useful to imbibe moral ethics among Government officials - deemed necessary to bring about further economic reforms. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar launched the Guru app, with Xiao Ming looking on ecstatically and the Chinese techie placed Bao and Bai and the troika at his lotus feet. This was the final surrender.