A project by Harshali Paralikar, Annu Mathew, Jansher Aidan Bakhshi,  Lorenz Roland, Ahmedabad, India

Karma Coin

Praveen walked back from his office. It was a warm July evening and something in the air made him take a detour from his normal path. Walking down the lane away from the main road, he now entered a quite complex of houses lined with tall Ashoka trees on either side of the road. Parked at the gate of one of the houses, his eyes fall upon a rarity that he didn’t expect to see in his wildest dreams. A Royal Enfield h-65, one of only two in the world, a true beauty of the past, stood there with the keys in ignition, beckoning him closer. In that moment Praveen knew that it had to be his. He had spent the past year on a fantastic Karma score with not a single crime in his log but the thought that now hit his mind could potentially change that. The next few minutes were a blur and in no time was Praveen headed home, this time on a bike. Despite expecting it, the cool coin still managed to surprise him. It wasn’t the first time but it had been a while. He waited anxiously for it to stop. When it finally did, he felt like a weight had lifted off. His mind was clearer now. As the wind hit his face and he glided along the road, Praveen noticed the flowers, the decorations, the lights. It was Diwali night. Tonight was the night of good deeds, as always.
He raced towards the city circle to check the scoreboard, his heart filled with a new sense of foreboding. The digits were slowly starting to form now and Praveen watched as the new number glowed – 00000000001, and below it were 00978358417.

One bad deed on an auspicious day, only his own.

Praveen owned a brass etched karma coin which was newly developed by the government. It has a LED display on the back of the coin which also has an intricate etched work representing the Ashoka chakra. The front of the coin is a basic adaptation of the existing rupee coin. The rupee symbol is replaced by the karma symbol and an endless knot representing the karma is in the centre. The graphical representation of the lotus from the rupee coin is also seen on the karma coin. The lotus is also a symbol of karma.

Each city also has a scoreboard showing the number of crimes or good deeds done by the people. For instance in our story, Praveen does one bad thing and the scoreboard changes to 00000000001.

The coin alerts its user through temperature also. It gets warm when you do a good deed and it gets cold if you do a crime or a bad deed. The value on the coin also changes with the deed. The more good you do, the high will be the value. This coin is used for your daily transactions and it only works when used by the owner himself. The coin could be purchased from any government banks and a person can only own one coin at a time. These coins are available in various choice of metals like silver, brass, gold, etc.