Why do people change with time?

The question was upsetting Sid deeply. Well, he knew the spiritual explanation of it unlike before, thanks to the wisdom-tradition that he joined. But still, something within him was not ready to decipher the reality philosophically.

He had made up his mind that he won't think about Prakash and his gang. He tried, but the intention of Prakash sent a chill down his spine whenever his mind thought about it. Gosh! What could've happened to that guy? Once he prided himself calling a Hindu nationalist, now what left of him is unthinkable.

Sid reached into his pocket and took off his phone. Prakash debates, he searched on YouTube. In an instant, the mobile screen filled with videos of Prakash debating with different individuals. Sid's eyes doubled in size to see few videos with million views. One video with the title, "Prakash destroys a Krishna devotee," caught his interest.

A creepy feeling rose within his heart—it restrained him to see the video but not for long—he tapped on the screen and watched how Prakash raised infuriating allegations on Lord Krishna's life. The devotee (who supposed to answer) stood like a clueless person without even trying to address any of the claims. Sid couldn't do anything but groan because the video gotten over five hundred thousand views, eight thousand likes, and of course with loads of favorable comments.

Offended people spit out shit about Prakash for insulting Lord Krishna and Hinduism in comments. Prakash did reply to hate comments from his YouTube channel. "It's my freedom of speech. Why so much intolerance? I'm not against one religion. I'm against all of them. You guys are protecting your religions by cussing me, my mother and sister? Wow, I didn't know religions teach this too. Great, got more points to expose religious people."

Thousands gave thumbs up of this comment.

Why he became like this? Sid felt terrible, a throe of agony made his throat dry to see how people were enjoying that video. Not because he was offended, but he felt powerless to raise his voice because he knew less will pay attention to his "freedom of speech."

He wanted to know what changed Prakash; he could imagine something terrible must've happened to him. Maybe Stan made him like this? Does his guru betray him? The answer seemed far-fetched, only if Prakash tells it.

Sid parted his lips and took a shaky breath, brushing his hand through his hair. At this point, however, he has a different thing worry. Such as getting selected in top twenty-five debaters.

Sponsors, this time, came up with a unique idea to choose the best. They said, "Give us your short video, elaborating your philosophy, and we'll upload it to our official YouTube channel. Viewers will watch your video and decide whether you deserve a place in top twenty-five or not."

Sure, democracy rocks.

Several heads nodded at this proposal (because there were firm shreds of evidence that the previous competition). So, Sid was waiting for the result. A voice of excitement kept on saying: Will I win? Or lose?

Minutes later, a projector screen stood before everyone like a white paper. Sid took a glimpse of it now and then. His mind was popping with negative prompts. What if nobody notices your video? What if they hate you? What if they misunderstand your words? But there were positive prompts as well. It's your time to shine, Sid.

Only to his despair, the screen remained colorless, toying with his anticipation. He stood staring the screen, arms folded across his chest.

"What philosophy did you give in the video?" Ravi said with a furrowed brow as he glanced at the anxiety-ridden face of his best friend. "You seem nervous, dude."

"Hmm," came from Sid. For him, the result of this debate competition was very crucial, more than his exams. His emotions were hitched to it. So many goals: make his mentor feel proud, broadcast the timeless message to the masses, burnt down prejudice with the sword of knowledge, etc., etc. He yearned to present philosophical understanding of bhakti tradition, The Krishna Love, the driving force which was the sole reason why he participated in this debate. "Well," he said, eyeing the projector screen. "The best of philosophy I could provide—the soul, karma, three modes of material nature."

Many of other debates were start losing their patience. A saffron clad old man blew his fuse. "C'mon, we have don't all day. Get it started already."

Sid looked with narrowed eyes at this man. The man's dressed in an attire of Sannyasi but shouts like a man stuck in traffic jam. The principle of not getting angry unfollowed, terrific.

"I'm sure this time also they'll choose those who heckle the most and behaves intolerantly." A man's voice came from Sid's back.

"But this time public will decide, not "they," this was a lady's voice, also from behind.

Sid skipped a beat. What does it mean they only choose "those who heckle the most and behaves intolerantly?" Those are individuals with typical religious temperaments. Follow my path, or you're doomed to hell. My religion is the only true faith, and rest must go to hell. My religion is in danger!

He was, of course, not that naive to understand why these types of people get attention. It's because people like to see something unusual, the things that don't go by the regular pattern. Yep, democracy rocks.

Sid winced as a shudder bolt out of him. Those would be the last people he wanted to debate. A positive vibe, however, never betrayed his trust that sponsors won't let those radicals represent any religion. We can, right?

Dum, dum, dum. The thudding sound emerged from a mic, on the stage came the man who created this all, the creator and now producer of this Great Debate. He was a handsome man, although in his late forties. His clean shaved face was enough swoon to a teenage girl. Many called him the Godfather here. "Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the delay. As you know me, my name is Shekhar. We're going to display current views on the videos all of you have submitted.

An annoying, close to a cacophony, music began to play, and the logo of Great Debate appeared on the projector screen. First debater's video started, which meant his video got highest views, about seven and half in one day. It was a good start for sponsors. Sid didn't enjoy this first video, it all talked about negativity and blame game.

The debater presented a very radicalized version of Hindu nation. If non-Hindus don't accept their ancestors as Hindus, those people will become a threat and better leave the country. Zero tolerance towards those who make fun of Hindu gods and goddesses. He admitted this version, not as traditional Hinduism, but he argued that it's a call of the time. Why are only Hindu festivals questioned? Why are just Hindu deities mocked in Bollywood movies? It's because we tolerate it, he said, from thousands of years we're doing it. At the end of his video, he showed a steep in statistic majority's population growth. Unethical conversion responsible for it, he said.

The video became trending, of course, because it was intended to invoke insecure emotions. The video also received backlash in the comments section because it contained heavy criticism of Islam and Christianity and their infamous attitude of looking down upon Hindus.

The second debater called himself social justice warrior, a non-religious fellow. In his video he condemned radicalism, his primary focus was on the rise of what he called saffron terrorism. He went on citing examples, many in comment section expressed their disappointment since the speaker didn't mention even one instance of violence that minor communities have incurred. Several commenter wrote: Agitate majority, appease the minority, and call oneself social justice warrior. They wanted the speaker to give balanced, not one-sided view. But this technique earned the debater considerable views.

Thirteen more videos were shown back to back, several of them spoke in favor of majority and called themselves right-wing. Of course, there were some who demonize majority community and spoke in favor minorities, even if they belonged to the religion of the majority. These people called themselves left-wing or leftists.

Right-wing? Left-wing? Sid became to scratch his head what these categories stood for and why both of them conflict with each other. Right-wing says leftists are nincompoop who never sees the suffering of the majority. Leftists declared right-wing ideology would destroy and wipe out minorities. Isn't beef-lynching an eye-opening example?

Sid felt his brain muddled with confusion as he was trying to understand both ideologies. Both seemed right in their place but both only presented skewed and one-sided perceptive which purposely neglected the throes of opposite side. He experienced vacillation, and he could say there was a bit of right-wing and left-wing both in him. But he failed to identify himself with any of them.

He patiently waited for his video, hoping the message of Bhagavad Gita could give balance view, but after the thirteenth video, the projector faded to black. A hubbub rose within the rest of debaters, the producer, Shekhar, came hastily on the stage and announced: "Only those videos that are above one thousand views, we decided to show on the projector. To find how many views your video got, please visit our official YouTube channel, and don't forget to subscribe." Shekhar almost left the stage but then sprinted back. "Whoa, whoa, guys. Remember if your video doesn't cross a thousand views in by next day. We won't consider your video. A new rule."

"That's ridiculous," someone said. Groans came from every corner, but it superseded with murmurs. Everyone sunk themselves in their mobile phones: "How many views you got?" "Shit, I got only twenty views, hell with this competition." "Great, I'm only ten views away to hit one thousand."

Sid felt terror constricted his heart. What if his video got no views? It was as clear as day his video was under thousand.

Ravi emerged from his right. "Let's see views on your video."

Only a nod Sid could do, jitters formed in his body. Ravi began to check on his phone; it made tick, tick, tick sound that raised Sid's heartbeat. "Sid, your views..." Ravi looked at his best friend sympathetically. "Only one thousand and nine hundred views so far, thirty likes, four comments. One of them says: Great boy, so much knowledge in such a young age." Ravi scratched his chin. "That's strange, this places you at least in top ten, but you were not."

Even if you shout, nobody will hear your truth. These words sent chasm of terror to Sid's heart. Ravi heard a dreadful, woeful gasp came from his friend, who stormed out of the place. Except following Sid, he did nothing. A question popped up in his mind. Isn't Bhagavad-Gita tell us to do your duty and forget about the result?

He paced up his walking speed to keep up with Sid. "Hey, why care about the result? Cool, you did your part."

The karma verse from Bhagavad-Gita brushed Sid's mind, but he felt things are different here somewhat manipulative. He launched into a jog than walking—Ravi kept up with that as well—and stopped at a secluded place. "It's all rigged. They are controlling it." He placed his hands on his waist, bit wheezing.

"Who? How come you of all the people?" Ravi raised his eyebrow like The Rock.

Sid gave him a surprised look as if he doesn't know, and then it struck him Ravi actually doesn't know it. Another fifteen minutes went in explaining the plot which Prakash and his gang are conspiring.

"It's a big mystery to me, man." Sid threw his hands in exasperation. "I've seen some mislead entities in my life, but like Prakash. Never."

Ravi was taken aback, no doubt, but what excited him that Sid has vowed to defeat those fellas. "How will you defeat them?"

Sid, who's restlessness didn't let him stand on one place, fixed his eyes at Ravi. "You what?"

"You said, you'll stop them." Ravi flashed a grin. "Oh god, how exciting it will be to see your debate match with them."

Sid brushed his finger through his hair. "I said that in the heat of the moment."

Within seconds, yesterday incident materialized before him. Prakash snapped at him and huffed, "Everything is under our thumb, kid. Even if you shout, nobody will hear your truth."

"I'm feeling sick, man," he said, you could see confidence and excitement were melting off from his voice. "Perhaps I should mind my own business."

It took time for Ravi sunk in those last words, and he felt a gamut of disappointment and anger. The rage blew his top. "You know, man, this is the biggest problem of our time. Because of people like you, things are messed up in this world."—Sid shot daggers at his friend, but he didn't speak—"You guys just don't care to speak the truth, when you don't tell people what the truth is, then they get misinterpreted truths by those who don't represent it properly. This thing has been happening since ages. Genuine people always beat a hasty retreat, and we end up with scumbags who twist the facts as per their agenda." He grabbed Sid's collar. "You have to stop these people, Sid, understand?"

Well, but Sid's hope was down, submerging in the ocean of false propaganda. He wanted to scream he fears nobody. It was just that things were not in his control—

"I heard all that you said," a voice came from behind and also the face of the bloke who said it. "Sorry, I was eavesdropping on your conversation." Sid darted his eyes at this guy, his beard without mustache distinguished his identity as a Muslim before he could reach the fragrance of attar came towards Sid and Ravi. "My name is Hakim, and I can send you to a person who's exactly the one you need at this point," he said, looking only at Sid.

****

A/N: Just one more chapter to go and you guys will read one of the greatest debates. What do you think will happen, what is Sid going to do? More important question, do you think he can debate Prakash and his gang? Please comment your thoughts.