This fiction titled "Democracy 2.0" is all about change; it tells how to go about changing situations in difficult, or maybe, impossible circumstances. It explains, through captivating sequences, ways of changing situations as stubborn as the social and political stereotypes of our time, such as democracy, corruption, caste-system and the cynical neutralism of the urban middle class.

 

The story is primarily about three young people: An IAS topper, a Harvard drop-out and a successful female media professional who come together and join hands under riveting circumstances to take on the ills of existing socio-political system through a unique Post-Gandhian movement conceived by them. The fascinating movement culminates into establishment of a modern republican order that they call Democracy 2.0 (version 2.0)

 

Here, two young men and a young woman, coming from entirely different socio-economic backgrounds and passing through different childhood experiences, traverse the courses of their independent lives till they happen to meet one another and discover that all the three carry the same dreams within them - the dream to make India a real democracy

 

Two men Aditya, an IAS topper and Siddhanta, a management student from Harvard, walk out of the promises of their respective comfortable lives and come to a non-descript village near a small town, Ara, where they set up The Ara Club, the secret meeting place that attracts some of the best young professionals of India who nurture similar ambitions of systemic changes.

 

Aditya Srivastava, born and brought up in a traditional family of a north-Indian small town and fed on the romantic notions of the civil services since his childhood, finds IAS to be his natural, and family-inspired, choice. However, what he didn't know was that by choosing the path of Civil Services, he had chosen a path of self-destruction till he meets with Devanjali, a girl from St Stephens, whose perspicacity at her age was a matter of folklores. Through her powerful analysis, she tries to convince him that IAS is not the solution; rather, it is a part of the problem. After coming to terms with reality of the system, he conceives a plan - a secret plan, to destroy this reality. He just needed few good men to execute his secret mission. He works out his strategies of a systemic change and prepares a detailed roadmap though, it is secretive. On the surface, he establishes himself in the society as a super-successful entrepreneur who is hailed as the 'Education Baron of India' and, more interestingly, the 'Success Guru'.

 

Devanjali, a girl with aristocratic lineage, had a luxurious but melancholic childhood. With circumstances, she acquires her own ideas of life which makes her independent and headstrong. She nurtures her own secret missions in life and needs few persons of character to execute her mission. One day, as she gets to meet Aditya, she believes he was 'her' man and plans to bring out 'her' leader out of him. But, in the process, she seriously falls in love with him. Afraid of the prospect of destroying her man even before creating him, she silently parts her ways and plans to go to USA for her further studies in journalism. Later, she comes out as a celebrated journalist who joins the biggest media house of the nation.

 

Siddhanta Sharan, the genius had a very wanting childhood which had come to him as a tragic legacy of a faded aristocracy. After passing through various changes of life that sees him trotting through the globe, the great visionary Siddhanta happens to land up in his village where he manages to bridge the status differentiation of rural society and brings about wonderful changes that revolutionizes the rural system. His unbelievable achievements make Maoism and caste wars fade into irrelevance. He is hailed in national-international media as the ‘Miracle Man’ and is honoured with many prestigious awards.

 

As chief editor of the biggest media house, Devanjali discovers an intricate network of dirty interests ensnaring the system where politicians, business houses, opinion leaders and lobbyists had held the political-bureaucratic system of India to a ransom. She finds that the owner of the media house, Vikram Thapar had his own intelligent role to play in the game. Now, her task was cut out; she would destroy the man and the ills he’d infused in the system. With her persistence and strong-headed approach, she exposes the nexus and, before she could fight Vikram Thapar legally, the man found a safer and a far more respectable escape route out of his desperate situation – suicide; he kills himself which symbolizes the cleansing act of dirty influences in media. Her giant act sends a powerful message to the media fraternity that when it comes to fighting corruption in its own backyard, the media houses can’t keep their heads buried in sand.

 

At the Ara Club, 200 best professionals of India leave their coveted jobs to form a political party called the ‘Volunteers of Democracy’ and go to create a unique Post-Gandhian movement, which through its innovative strategies, successfully integrates both the urban middle class and the rural Indian masses with the core of the movement. It not only results into dissolution of the existing corrupt and inefficient regime patronized by Mrs Roslein Sarvapriya but it also revolutionizes the hedonistic, self-centred middle class which gets to discover the meaning of true democracy and finds the true role of a citizen in it.

 

The unique trend of ‘social tourism’ began during the movement goes a long way in bridging the great urban-rural divide. The ‘Volunteers of Democracy’, led by Aditya defeats the government of Mr Agya Pal Singh and amidst nation-wide celebrations, forms a new-age government.

 

Now, that her personal mission is fulfilled, will Devanjali get the opportunity to express her love for Aditya, the leader she once created. What question weighs on his mind when Aditya delivers his first Victory address to the nation from the India Gate; at the moment, does he think of the woman who has changed his life?

"Amidst all these razzmatazz, what Siddhanta was doing in a remote village alone? What does he tell Devanjali about that particular moment and about his conspicuous absence from the celebration that makes Devanjali go speechless?"