Toys People Play

“If you can’t make weapons make toys” thundered the ‘God who Walks’ in his customary monthly disclosure to his country-men. He descended from the heavens and got himself democratically elected in the worlds’ largest democracy. Most of the election promises that had been made has been fulfilled in no time and he was run out of topics to discuss. Unlike the proverbial Nero who fiddled he fed peacocks instead when the country was reeling under COVID. One of his ministers had placed the blame of the status of the economy at his doorstep when she said it was an Act of God. He wondered if her reference was actually about his act. 

Now he has taken up the idea of ‘athmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) as a slogan to keep the citizens humoured. Like in the past when people clapped at his behest, the corporate sector followed suit and released advertisements vouching for their ‘desi’ roots. From biscuits to machines suddenly it was all Make in India. Nobody knew the definition of the word ‘atmanirbharta.’ Where do you draw the line? At the border? People wondered.

Border lines were re-drawn by the neighbours all of a sudden and that too simultaneously. All this re-drawing was orchestrated by the powerful enemy, as one was led to believe by the spokesman of the God who walks. One needed weapon to fight one’s enemy. But the nation believed in ‘ahimsa.’ Hence the call he had made to make toys instead. If not by military we will hit by economics, he calculated.

One could make bow and arrow as one remembers them during festivals back in good old school days and use them against neighbours. Or one could make, particularly, toy dogs, preferably desi breeds like Mudhol, Rajapalayam and brand them as HMV (his master’s voice). After all HMV was a desi brand and it would sell very well considering the disposition of the masses today. Or you make the Tanjore doll which swings To and Fro, with a weight fixed to bring the centre of gravity at the base, as if it is saying yes. There are of course the dolls with winding spring which claps when the spring unwinds, yet again suitable for the times one is in.

One game appropriate for the present times is the snake and ladder made in a traditional way. Snakes could imply wrong steps and ladder would symbolize the right steps. For example, if you vote saffron, it is a right move in life and you go up the ladder. If you are secular then a snake is sure to eat you down. This game could become part of the NEP curriculum in the subject called ethics and morals. This game is amenable for all subjects to be taught. One could use in history class as well. For example, if you say that Mughals destroyed Bharata then it is correct and you go up the ladder. One can use them to discuss gravity, nutritional value of cow’s urine and so on. Hope you get the drift.

One wonders at the deep vision that the ‘God who Walks’ had when he exhorted the country men to make toys. It is now for the numerous bhakts to put his vision into action in the form of a manual which could be called as “Toys People Play.”

If the world follows suit and the people start playing with their toys there would be lasting peace and perhaps he can walk away with a Nobel Prize for Peace.