The courage to continue

ShubbuLakshmi or Amma as she was known in her entire community had just dropped her son Arjun to the airport, he had got placed in a premier IT company and was flying to Delhi for his first Job. This was the day for which she had waited for decades .
The apartment was on the 25th Floor, she walked across the posh apartment, a sense of accomplishment graced her face , the balcony was her favorite place in the entire house, a place where the cool breeze touching her cheeks reminded her of Amar . As soon as she started feeling the breeze she used to close her eyes and felt independent and chained at the same time and the feeling made her feel complete - a feeling which she never had anywhere else .
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ShubbuLakshmi was born in Sonargachi a red light area in kolkata . Her childhood was spend amidst sex workers and their children . As a child she always wandered why her amma went to work at night but there was no one to answer her questions . Often she would find amma bruised after a night's job , but she was too scared to ask anyone what happened ? She wanted to go to school and much against the will of the community she started going to the government school . All went well till she turned 14 . One incident prevented her from going back to school and denied her an access to a Future in fact it changed the entire course of her life . The school was mere 2 kms away from her house. One day she was returning from school, as usual, but there was a difference - she was happy- her teacher had said that she could see a doctor in shubbu . She even bought Laddos for her amma. It was around 6 pm , suddenly she saw Ravi and Raju her school friends in the nearby Pan shop . She went towards them , she wanted to share her happiness with them. But the moment she went near them , she realized something was wrong , they were not the guys , she considered as friends , they were staring at her at places where she was not comfortable , their eyes reflected lust. She could not bear the strange look, and decided to walk back, but fate had planned it differently . The guys followed her and started touching her . Shubbu protested and started shouting for help. When the guys saw people coming , they started abusing shubbu started addressing her as a prostitute and started disgracing her amidst the crowd . Shubbu was shocked the people who had initially come to help her , now ridiculed her , they also now started looking at her with lust, she was too young to understand the impact the word "prostitute " had on people's mind . . She could not bear the ridicule anymore, she ran and did not stop till she reached the place which she called her home, the place where her amma used to work, the place where she had seen her amma bruised emotionally and physically, now she lay in the same place hurt.
This incident took everything away from her . Her amma was too scared to let her go to school again , and this marked the end of her happiness.
Shubbu now spent her time in daily chores and learning arts from people whom she called "mashi" (Aunty). She was Happy that she was learning something new , yet somewhere deep down she wanted to study . She had just turned 15 and "MEN" there had started showing interest in paying her for work which her amma did, her amma was not attracting enough clients to sustain the expenses and thus the problem started. One day a client did come to her ammu, and offered a whooping 6ooo INR , but ammu was not OK with the deal, and the other members were forcing her to go ahead, else they threaten that they would give shubbu away , these were the same people whom shubbu called mashi, and now the hunger of money had changed everything even their love for shubbu .All this happen when shubbu was fast asleep . When shubbu woke the next morning she found her ammu bleeding beside her , she had bruises all over her faces , the marks seemed like those of a knife, as if someone had deliberately scratched her face with knife , her arms were red , and her back had marks of belt , and she held a bunch of Indian rupees in her fist . Shubbu cried for help, few women came and started helping shubbu clean the bruises .
This incident continued over the next few months, till one morning amma was found dead .
Shubbu had lost everything , she was shattered and before she could recover from the loss , her maushi had started demanding that she should started working or leave the place. The love in her mashi's eyes had turned into greed for money . They knew that at the age of 17 she would attract a price of not less than 50,000 INR .
Shubbu could not sleep for the next few days , she had to find a way out , this was not what she had thought for herself . Soon the community was offered 50000 INR for Shubbu , now she was not even given the choice to run away, hence now she was kept in custody . Soon she had to succumb to the greed of her mashi's and was sold for a handsome amount She was taken away to a posh area - Ballygunj in kolkata , by her "owner", who used her as a domestic help in the day time and raped her at night, sometimes he brought along friends. who behaved more like animals then humans, She soon found her in the same bruised state as she had seen her amma .
There was still something which subbhu thought was bettar than sonargachi , at least there were no double standards , unlike her mashi's who displayed false affection these men had no affection at all. She had accepted her fate, and was waiting for the day where she too would die. But she soon realized that she was also the centre of attraction for the other male residents of the same colony , who offered her as much as 2000 INR for the job which her owner forced her to do every night .
Then she made a plan , a plan to escape from the torture , a plan to smile, a plan to dignity .
She spent the next 5 years , meeting those "lustful men" and earning at least 2000 INR , per person and at the end of five years she had 1 Lakh INR , and all this without her owner coming to know of it .She was 23 and one day realized that she was pregnant , her owner thrashed her that night on hearing this, and started making plans for abortion , but shubbu had other plans .
During these 5 years she also had made a friend , "neha" , she used to work in one of the resident's flat. Neha was from chennai and she had her family still living there . Though subbu's amma was from the state of tamil nadu , but she never heard anything from ammu as much as she heard from neha. She started understanding the meaning of culture , life, education .
The day after Shubbu got thrashed , she booked a ticket to chennai , and with the help of neha boarded her train to happiness.
The journey was a special one, she was free for the first time since 23 years. She looked around the sleeper class , people of all kinds were there,she was a bit scared as she was traveling for the first time, but it did not matter as she was happy, She kept the money in a bag and kept it close with her always . Life had taught her one thing that she could not trust anyone . She stood at the door of the train , and enjoyed the breeze , the breeze touching her cheeks, titillated her . Though she was alone , she felt the satisfaction of being independent. She knew that now she had to sustain her self , in chennai and had to find a way out .The best part of the journey was that no one knew that she was from Sonargachi, and that she traded lust. She had a great feeling of confidence. In chennai Neha's brother Amar came to receive her. she stayed with neha's family till she gave birth to Arjun .
In those 9 months she made a plan, she knew that the child will not bear hardships as she did , he/she would have a future which she did not have, most importantly he/she would have education . Amar helped her in making a plan , a plan to live. He helped her with the money, she had brought from kolkata. Something in Amar told Shubbu that she could trust him with not only money but with everything else. Neha had told her family that Shubbu was a widow. Hence she attracted a lot of pity and at the same time enough help to seek a road to salvation . She had begin liking amar, he was not like the other men who looked at her as a mean to satisfy their lust ,instead he used to look at her with eyes full of a admiration , the shine in his eyes reminded her of amma .
With help of Amar she had opened a small shop selling bedsheets which were beautifully embroidered by her ,an art which she had learnt when she dropped from school . She bought the materials required and started working on them during her pregnancy with the help of amar.
She had fallen in love with him . Amar saw a strange shine of confidence in her eyes and this is why he was attracted to her . He often used to hold her close and his breath used to make her cheeks red. This was the only moment when their bodies were close enough to feel each other .
Arjun had turned 3 and shubbu had expanded her business , she now had a grocery store in addition to her embroidery store , she rented her own one room row house . Till one day when they both went out to beach , the evening was pleasant, breeze blew shubbu hair in such a way that it touched Amar's Cheeks, who was enjoying the romantic environment . The sky looked heavenly, the environment was warmer than usual, and both of them were blushing, both their eyes had the shine of a newly wed couple. That day , Amar proposed her and said he wanted to marry her . Shubbu was happy ,She was at the zenith of happiness. the evening which was already romantic, made her blush, she realized the sky too was pink in color, there were couples all around them , birds were on their way home . but there was something which took away the romance from the environment , her past was something she had not told anyone, this made her uncomfortable .The romance in the air had started fading as she recalled her past, right from her school to ammu to her "owner", she told him everything but she also knew that he may not marry her after he heard the entire story, and she did not expect him to either. As she knew it is difficult for everyone to fight the society. Amar was deeply shocked and hurt to hear all these, the roses which he had brought for shubbu fell down from his hand . All these while Arjun was building castles from sand on the beach .Suddenly Amar walked towards Arjun picked him kissed his forehead and said "stay well ". He turned towards shubbu , his eyes were misty, he could not stay a word, he just picked up those roses and gave it to her .
Shubbu knew that he will not come back, she knew this was the last time she saw him. A sense of grief enclosed both of them
She enrolled herself into a school for adults, and accomplished her dream to get education, and she also ensured that Arjun got the best of education.
She never felt for anyone like she felt for Amar, She always felt the vacuum created after Amar left , but she made her life so busy that she never felt the need to look for him . She soon created a chain of embroidery stores. As she started getting grey hair, she felt the need to help thouasands of subbulakhsmi in the country. She realized that the best way to create awareness was by making her story public. This was not going to be easy , as she now lived in a posh areas in chennai , the society knew her as a business women and not as a girl from Sonargachi . Most importantly she had to tell Arjun everything .
Arjun had just turned 20 and was in his second year of Computer Science & Engineering . He had come home for new year . It was around 6 pm , the sun was about to set. An apartment at the 25th floor guranteed an amazing veiw of the sunset, both of them sat in the balcony. Subbha had to gather a lot of courage to tell him , she had a debate with herself , since 2 week prior to his arrival, she was scared that like Amar he may also desert her, but she soon realize that she had to tell him, as if he comes to know of it from some one else he would be utterly devasted and their relation could turn out to be worst than she expected .
Arjun did not expect this kind a story of her ma , he was not devasted but angry, his eyes were getting red , as she was telling her story . Shubbu was scared , her eyes were moist, tear drops were coming out from the corner of her eyes . She could not complete, when Arjun stood up and left the flat .
This was something for which she was not prepared , she knew he would take time to accept this piece of hard truth ,but she thought he would also appreciate her courage and her desire to live . She sat their in the balcony for the entire night, looking at the empty dark sky, she had nothing left now , she felt empty. Staring at the dark sky she remembered her amma , She remembered the last few weeks when she was alive, flashes of her bruises came to her mind ,she remembered the 6000 INR her amma earned for all the blood she lost. She wanted to find her amidst the clouds and hug her , she wanted to cry, she wanted to to hold someone , just anyone, but alas there she was on a posh apartment, without anyone to share her pain with ,she felt lost for the first time since she came to chennai .
She had fallen asleep in the chair , suddenly she felt someone hugging her, she opened her eyes to find Arjun sobbing. She kissed his forehead. His eyes were red and it looked he did not sleep the entire night, " Ma , I love you ma , you always have been my guru , but today i not only look at you as a Teacher but i look at you as a god, you have done so much for me ma, If you did not decide to run to Chennai , I would have been living a completely different life , Thank you ma,." . Shubbu could not control her emotions either , " beta I though I lost you , just like I Lost Amar , I felt so lonely , so left out , so deprived ." Arjun," Ma I will never Leave you, never.." . Soon She also took his permission to go public with her story , and his response was more than positive , he helped her with writing her autobiography , and also ensured that the books marketing was done in an effective manner . His efforts bore fruits soon and Subbulakhshmi soon became a nation figure. She was everywhere from business magazines to Femina ,

Today he left Chennai to start his own life , Shubbu was proud of Arjun , she felt her life was complete as not only did she managed to provide education to arjun but she herself evolved from a sex worker to a successful business women to an author. She often thought that whatever happened to her , happened for a reason, she was able to connect all the incidents of her life today. Even if one incident did not happen then today she wouldn't have been what she was, the success which she achieved may have only been a dream . Since she discontinued from school , she knew fine arts and could transform that skill set to a profitable business .She realized the importance of all the incidents in her life sour or sweet, all of those incidents together made her persona as she was and today as usual she was beautiful.

Today she was independent as she had accomplished all her dreams yet she was chained as there were still lakhs of subbu's throughout the country . There she stood at her favorite balcony , and as the breeze touched her cheeks, she remembered Amar, without whom today she would have been incomplete, she looked at the sky , it had shades of blue and orange, it was going to be dark soon, the day was coming to an end but for shubbu life never stood still, the day never came to an end, but today , she looked up at the sky and saw birds making there way back to their nests she realized her day was also coming to an end, but she had no regrets , the journey had been beautiful, she had achieved all she wanted to and she ensured that other subbu's realize that "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts"..

khushi

Happiness is something which is craved by all , and people have their own strange ways to stay happy.A good majority of us will say one can never be happy, as by nature man always wants the best,so as soon as he gets what he desires he starts,looking for anew desire , a new fantasy.
A businessmen always fantasies that he would have a global empire, and feels that he will be happy only when that empire is established.An unemployed youth would tell you that all he needs is a job and that would make him the happiest person on earth.A child would tell you that a truck full of ice-creams would make him happy.A new wed bride would tell you that if her husband is happy she would be happy.
There are infinite reason to happiness, which differs from person to person, but I strongly feel a person is happy only if he wants to.I may sound absurd, but I feel rather I believe that our mind is the strongest tool , god has gifted us with, if we just tune our mind to stay happy, we will feel the difference, it's all a state of mind, and the best part is, it is completely under our control.
Happiness actually comes from within, and the reason to happiness can be just about anything,all we have to do is to look around with an observant eye.Although today people feel that materialistic things will make us happy,the fact is it is the small moments of life,shared with our beloved ones,that titillates us, when we lose hope, when we feel that life is nothing but a big black hole which is sucking the very life from us, it is at this time,when moments like our first date,our first friend or perhaps the silly things which we did in school or college, brings a smile,a hope in our face.
Happiness makes a person beautiful,healthy and everything positive that comes to our mind.The secret to happiness is not achieving our desires ,but it is simply to feel happiness.Life is never a bed of roses, but we can at least feel the comfort of such a bed,just by closing our eyes.
Let me share one incident .A few days ago, I was in a melancholic mood, and was simply surfing through the channels, when i saw a report on Afghanistan,and this report led to the realization that happiness comes from within.In that report I saw a boy not more than 8 years , was smiling away to glory, though his background was nothing more than burnt villages.His happiness ,it seemed had no limits, it seemed as if he owned the world , and this happiness was due to nothing else but a small piece of bread. It is strange that a small piece of bread which is eaten by thousands of people in an unthankful manner can bring such a big smile on someone's face.The smile did not speak of the inhuman conditions in which he lived, nor did it tell that the boy had lost his right leg in the war, it only spoke of the happiness which he felt.That smile made me realize how lucky I was to have a family , to have a house,to have a college and most importantly to have a fully functional , normal body.There I was thankful to almighty, that I am in India and not in some war ridden country, and I realised that I had a million reasons to be happy, and thus realizing that happiness is no where else but within us.

A thing to dream of and not to tell!!

Aryl Larks leafed through the stained yellow pages of the diary. The last three entries clubbed together caught her eye (the entries prior to this cluster were dates some 12 years back).

FEB 5 - one equation, just one set of inconsistent data .Lies between me and my dream. I am almost through, but for the last step.

NOV 11-Thirteen years and another half a dozen months. It's been a long wait, a very long one indeed. But it was worth the struggle. I finally have everything on paper.

Oh god! Oh god! Should I have done it? The bunch of papers contains earth shattering results.......

NOV 15- No, it cannot be. I cannot let yellow papers veil my success. I cannot let the baby die in the womb itself. The whole world has got the right to know about it...

HOLY CHRIST...forgive me if I am making a mistake...

Aryl Larks, always had control over her emotions, but today was not her day. She had been awake for the past 24 hrs, and had no intention to rest in the next few hours or perhaps the next few days. She clung on to the diary with tears in her eyes. She was enervated ,after 1 year of searching all she found was a diary. She remained there sitting in the dusty basement until she heard the approaching steps of someone coming. She quickly hid behind one of the giant boxes. She realized ,that she had been in the basement for over 5 hrs, and the noise she made had aroused the suspicion of the guards, who had come there to inspect. No sooner, had the guards left than she left the basement the same way she had sneaked into it, that is through a secret gateway, that her father had shown her .Going through that tiny passage, she also went down the memory lane. She recollected the times when she used to come with her father through this passage .she remembered all the things, her father had taught her, and momentarily the pleasant memories of the past turned into melancholy with the thought of the way her father died. It took her 25 minutes to reach her apartment, which usually took only 10 minutes, but time was not in her mind, the only thing that raced in her mind, were the questions that had been haunting her for the past 5 years, answers to which she sought ever since the mysterious death of Dr. Harry Larks, her father, who would have created a chaos in the field of technology, had god been gracious enough to give him what all human crave for, TIME.

Amidst all these confusion, one thing which was clear in her mind was the realization that the only purpose of her life now, was to find out what was the dream, her father wanted to share with the world, a dream which she knew would create havoc in the world by unfolding the mysteries, perhaps, for which even the world was waiting. She wanted answers for a lot of questions, but primarily she wanted to give her father a tribute which he truly deserved .she wanted Dr. Harry Larks to receive the fame and recognition for the project on which he had spent 2 decades, Project – LIFE. She was having a sense of nostalgia, her father had been a friend , philosopher and guide to her, and now she was left alone with no one to confide in. She suddenly felt very weak. If only her father had been alive!

Her immediate search was the papers and records of the projects which had been misplaced, lost or stolen, something she was not sure of. She ransacked the entire apartment like a sniff dog, in search of any document which could answer her queries. Just as she was about to give up her 2 and a half hours search , she found it, a piece of paper, which was yellowed with time, and what seemed to be a piece of a scientific report. She gave the page a closer look, it seemed to be a report on something related to the project life, and it dated back to 15^th March 2020. Aryl was sure that the paper had something to do with the "set of equations", which was referred to by her father. Indeed it was some sort of complex algebraic formulas which she could not comprehend. There was one more thing which caught her eye, a name which was curiously similar –

Dr.Joetsna , who according to the paper was the Assistant Professor in charge of the project. She at once hurried to the mini – library of her father, to find out more about the abstract equations. Dr Larks had an amazing collection of books. His vast collection ranged from philosophy, arts to science and technology.

She started with the algebraic books which were her father’s favourites. She tried her best to concentrate on the books, but Dr. Joetsna occupied a greater part of her subconscious mind, yet it was purely her determination which did not let her deviate. 5 hours later she understood the equations. She had always been a genius in mathematics, but that alone did not mean anything. She had to search for more papers, she had to go back to the basement. Soon the thoughts of Dr. Joetsna haunted her mind, and suddenly she realized she had forgotten to wear her ear rings .The ear-rings were special to her, her father had gifted them, and he made sure that she wore only that pair, something which she detested.

She was supposed to remove them only at night, provided she had worn them during the day. She recollected how her father always pestered her to keep the ear rings in night only in the special safe kept in her father’s lab and he made sure that she obeyed him.

She then tried calling Mr. Alfred Hawkins, the only living associate of her father, but she was shocked to find no element of surprise in his voice, instead he was more concerned about the diary which she had found. Somehow her intuition was telling, not to give the diary to Alfred. She was skeptical about this whole idea of giving the diary to him. Amidst all this chaos she decided not to loosen her pragmatic approach to life.

She made an instant decision to drop in N.I.R.T (National Institute of Robotics Technology), the research centre where her father had spent 3 decades. She took a cab and rushed through the busy streets of Manhattan (New York). A conglomeration of emotions surrounded her, as she tried to concentrate on what to speak to the officials of N.I.R.T.

After passing through a series of security checks, she was finally allowed to meet the Head scientist, Dr Frank Christe. No matter, how hard Aryl tried to explain her situation, Dr Frank Christe, showed no interest in Aryl, or in Dr. Harry Larks. After ten minutes of futile conversation, Aryl was brushed aside, in the context that, Project – Life had nothing to do with N.I.R.T. and they could not divulge the information, of anybody working there. He even refused to acknowledge the presence of Dr. Joetsna in N.I.R.T.

Aryl was highly disappointed by her first attempt to do something for her father. She was walking past the entire group of Scientists with a sullen attitude, when someone collided with her, and before she realized, a piece of paper was in her hand, and the person disappeared …

She quickly kept the paper inside her purse, and took a cab back to her apartments. Inside the cab, she looked at the paper: "Remove the Mask it is surely a Good Deed and May He quit. Dog has granted Elephant is not quit. Rise. Does the Zeal Quit! Before Going check out.” She at once knew it was an encrypted message, but why ? Why someone had to give her such a message, she had no idea. No sooner had she reached her Apartment, than she began to decrypt the message, having done a Doctorate in Mathematics, and she at once started guessing the key. To start with, she separated the alphabet in capitals; she got a set of characters which made no sense – R T M S G D M H Q D G E N Q R D Z Q B G. It still didn’t make sense, was she going in the right direction, or did she miss out something? She recollected that when her father was alive, he used to pass all the messages in an encrypted form. Though he generally used a simple Encryption algorithm. in which the message was first reversed, then each alphabet was replaced with the one before alphabetically. She knew that this one could not be that simple, yet she wanted to try it out, this time she got a message which looked like – SUNTHENIREHFORSEARCH, and lo! she got it, the final decrypted message was "search for her in the sun ". At least for the time being she assumed she had got the right message, but now the question was, what does the word sun stand for. One thing was sure; the person who gave her this message was familiar with Dr.Harry larks and herself. The first thing which amused her was, her apartment was named "Sun apartments" .She was confused, could it be that simple? Does Dr. Joetsna live in the same apartments as she? She even considered the idea that perhaps someone was trying to fool her. But she was not in a position to take chances. What if the message was true!?. It was her father’s strict order that she was not supposed to interact much with other people, hence she did not even know the names of people who shared the same apartment. She at once went to the Security in charge and inquired about Dr. Joetsna .To her surprise, Dr. Joetsna lived in the flat, right opposite to hers. Too many things had been revealed to her in such a short time, she felt uneasy, a bunch of questions remained unanswered in her mind yet she knocked at flat no.103 –the flat right opposite to hers – She was both exhausted and confused.

Dr.Joetsna was around 55, yet her age did not kill her enthusiasm and energy. The ambience of the flat spoke volumes about Dr. Joetsna’s personality. The walls were painted white and the room was neat if not posh. Strangely she was at ease with

Dr Joetsna. She was not sure if this was because, she was interacting with another woman, or because she was talking to someone at a personal level for the first time since her father’s death. Aryl had very little idea of what lay ahead of her. As soon as she sat in the warm cozy ambience of the flat, she sprang up as she saw a portrait of her father in the drawing room. She couldn’t believe her eyes; her father had never mentioned about anybody named Dr .Joetsna. As she stood there staring at her father’s portrait, Dr.Joetsna came there, patted her shoulder and told her that Dr Harry Larks was a good friend of her. She even recognized Aryl; she knew almost everything about Aryl.

Aryl was too shocked to speak. She looked through the window panes and saw the sky was changing its color, it was dusk. The day was coming to an end, but her queries were not answered yet, she could not afford any rest now. She started asking Dr.Joetsna about N.I.R.T. Initially to her disbelief Dr.Joestna reacted as if she had never heard of N.I.R.T. , but Aryl knew she was lying . The paper she found in the morning was the proof. After an hour long conversation, Dr.joetsna finally agreed that she had worked in N.I.R.T. , but she still said that she had no idea about project – LIFE, and that she had never worked in the same project as Dr.Harry Larks.

It was well past midnight , when Aryl went back to her apartments. She decided to visit Dr.Joetsna more frequently, perhaps she would divulge, after she comes in personal terms with Aryl. Aryl had no idea what she would do next, over the next week. She kept re-reading the diary, and she tried to find all applications of the equations she had found, but yet she did not come across anything convincing. She decided to visit the basement

again .She was left with no other choice . She knelt in front of her father’s picture , and asked forgiveness -she was about to do something which her father had strictly forbidden her to do.Though this was her second visit to basement after her father’s death , she made up her mind that this was going to be the last visit. This time she took a bag with her , she had decided to bring everything which had her father’s name embossed in it.

She kept her designer shoes aside, and wore walkers , because she did not want to make any noise this time. This time she was quick , she did not waste any time sitting in the basement. She got hold of a file which contained about 50 blank sheets and picture of a black cat . Though it made no sense to her , she knew she did not have time to think. She kept the file and a host of other things inside her bag. The first thing she looked in her apartments was the file, there she realized that the sheets inside the file had holes in them, pin-size holes . It looked really wacky and the picture of the black cat , just didn’t make sense . She noticed a sentence in the picture just below the cat – " I am the number that represents a woman’s best friend" . She was sure this was not just a line , it was a key , but the question was ‘to what’ ? She again tried to figure out the holes in the papers. Suddenly everything made sense , 6-7 holes made up an alphabet , and thus a word was formed , and then a sentence was formed.

She could at last see the silver lining. She was suddenly full of panache .She knew , she would achieve her dream , she knew Dr. Harry was going to be famous soon.

The next two weeks was spent in writing the entire file of papers in a legible format . To her disbelief and happiness the file was the synopsis of the project – life. She could not believe what she read , her father had designed a robot – that could not only talk , but was designed to behave and feel like humans. Dr.Harry Larks had foresighted the technology and with his dedication and knowledge in fields like cognitive theory , artificial intelligence , he had created an artificial human. Aryl read the part containing details about the robot around 4 times. She now wanted to see the robot herself , and read for the sole purpose of finding its whereabouts .She was highly impressed with the way the robot which was called S236A-1 , was programmed to learn from the behavior of other humans.

Aryl was highly enthusiastic about the way S236A-1 functioned .She was inarticulate . The page in front of her said that the best thing about S236A-1 was the way it gets charged ,the robot did not have to depend on any human for this. Instead it simply was charged by something which looked very similar to ear-rings , but only they had to be charged regularly. She was surprised to see that ear rings were exactly like the one she wore .The best part was that the battery could also be charged by solar power. She was getting highly inquisitive about the robot. She further read that the ear-ring had to be charged in a special charger , which resembled an oven or perhaps a safe. This charger was also similar to the safe in her father’s laboratory. The next few pages contained the construction details of S236A-1 , along with sketches of the robot . Somehow she was not at ease with the idea that the robot looked an exact replica of Aryl herself.

She had always pondered over her body’s physiology , which was strikingly different from the human physiology which she had read . This was something to which even her father did nor respond , and she was always told , that the only reason is that she is special , and she should not talk about this to anyone except her father . The more she read about the robot and saw the working sketches of S236A-1 , the more horrified she was . She could not believe it , the robot’s physiology and anatomy was similar to her in an astonishing manner.

She had to confirm her doubts , she couldn’t possibly live in this dilemma she had to find the true ARYL. Suddenly the lines "I am the number that represents a woman’s best friend" , made sense to her . She somehow believed that the picture was some message hidden by some steganographic technique. The number she believed was 6-the atomic number of carbon. She believed that the sentence was an adage: diamond was a woman’s best friend ; and diamond is made up of carbon which is represented by 6-it’s atomic number. She was not sure of the number but she had to try it. She had to change the last 6 bits of each pixel to the binary form of 12-carbon’s mass number , or was it the other way round ? She did not know if she could find anything that would calm her down, or perhaps she find something that would take away her very identity , she was not sure .

Two hours later , she saw something for which she was not prepared . The decrypted picture showed how S236A-1 transformed to Aryl. She stood like a statue , though now all her queries were answered , yet the fact that she was not human , was too strange to accept. She looked outside , it was dusk , the day was coming to an end , she looked at the birds flying back to their nests - that part of the day which brings thoughts of longingness, but she knew she had no rest anymore- her fight had just begun .She stood there as dusk transformed into night and the night broke to dawn .

She had no idea what she was supposed to do next. Her very existence was a question in itself. She could not understand why her father never spoke to her about this. She suddenly started having a feeling of anguish for her father. She simply could not understand why Dr Larks induced her to dream, to aim for higher things in life, when he knew that she was a machine. She was not sure of what she was thinking. She had to talk to someone, someone humane enough to understand her.

She knocked on flat no.103 again . Dr.Joetsna was shocked to hear Aryl had discovered the robot in her. Dr.Joetsna stood in disbelief as she listened to the desperate plight of a daughter whose one and only aim was fame and recognition of her father , but what touched her was the fact that the daughter was not just a daughter , she was a machine. She had decided to break Dr. Larks’ promise , she had to give the letter written by him. She had to tell Aryl about the frustration that Dr.Larks was going through when he decided to end everything.

Aryl was given a 4 page letter which as per Dr.Joetsna was the last piece of communication from Dr. Larks before his death. Aryl was left speechless as she read that her father did not present his creation among the scientific intellects , because of the love for his daughter. He buried his 13 years work just for Aryl , just because he wanted Aryl to live a life of normal human . All this while Dr. Joetsna looked at Aryl as if she was in front of a divine creation of god, she was really amused to see so much of compassion between a human and a machine .

Aryl knew it was not easy for her father to give up his dream , his aspirations , yet he did what perhaps no other human would do. Aryl’s desire to give her father a tribute which he truly deserved grew stronger than ever. She had decided to unveil the creation of her father , she had to prove to the world the high intellect of Dr. Larks .She knew that this meant it was the end of Aryl , death as humans called ; but she had no other way .

The sky suddenly seemed clearer than before. The sun looked brighter. Dr. Joetsna knew that it was not the end , instead it was a beginning , the start of a new revolution.