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“Good morning sir. May I come in?” Nisha asked.

I looked up from the table. She was standing at the door. She looked marvellous with the red top and grey short-skirt. Red lipstick was shining on her milky white face. A smile always comes to my mind whenever I see her.

“Good morning, Nisha. Come in.” I said, smiling at her.

She came in and sat in front of me. I rang the bell. Dinesh came in. I asked him to bring a cup of cappuccino. I turned to Nisha and asked, “So, what are my appointments today?”

“You will study the weekly report now. At 11, you have an appointment with Dr. Kumar of Kumar & Sons. He sent us a proposal for the distribution of our robotics products, if you remember, sir. At 12, you have a meeting with the general manager of operations. After lunch, at 2, you will attend a video conference with Dr. Michael Tame regarding the improvements of the emotion software for robots. At 3, you will take me to my monthly check-up. That’s all for the day, sir.” She said without stopping. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Oh I forgot about your check-up. Surely we will go for it. How are you, by the way?” I asked her. Dinesh came in with a cup of cappuccino and left after serving me. I looked at Nisha. “What do you mean by how I am, sir? I am a robot and we still are working on our human emotion software. So, I guess till then I’ll have to answer you that I am doing fine.” She said.

“Hmm…” I said with a thoughtful expression, “Would you mind if I ask you something? Are you….” Nisha interrupted me, “Sorry sir, but again you’re asking whether I’ll mind when I haven’t installed the emotion software.”

“Okay, I meant… Uhm… Are your programs telling you that installing an emotion software will help you in your work?” “I don’t know sir. The program has denied to take any guess but has decided to wait for the installation.” “Okay, you may go now.” I said. Nisha stood up from the chair, bowed and left the room.

I manage the Patil Group, which makes robots that help us in our day-to-day lives. We make specialized robots for every household work, from cook robot to automatic washing machines with robotic pad, from gatekeeper to helper robot; though I didn’t allow the company to make multitasking robot so as to increase the profit of my company by selling more robots. I have the patent of such automatic robots, so I don’t even face much competition from other companies. So, many companies come to me for distribution of my robots and for permission of making autonomous robots under my licence. The meeting with Dr. Kumar was such a meeting. After that, I met the general manager of operations. He gave me the report of all the robot workers in my factory. He also told me that the testing of the human emotion software will start from today and asked me whether I would like it to test on Nisha first. I readily agreed.

After the meetings were over, Nisha came to me. We went to the VIR (very important robot) room. It is just like a VIP lounge for human. Dr. Giri, chief scientist of the lab, entered and wished us. We talked and then he and Nisha entered the chamber. He put her inside a machine and pushed the button. My excitement was growing. After 10 minutes, which seemed like an hour to me, they came out of the chamber. I hurriedly went to Dr. Giri and asked him how it went.

“It went well, Dr. Patil, don’t worry.” He said. I went out of the room with Nisha. After the final reviews of the day, I closed my office and came out. My limousine was waiting for me. Nitin, my driver robot, opened the door. I sat on the backseat. Nisha sat on the front one. Nitin drove my car to my villa. Paresh, my homeguard robot opened the gate with the switch. We entered my mansion. Prithvi, my helper robot at home took out the coat from me and gave me a towel. Sheela, the maid robot, went to make juice for me. I went for a shower, had juice along with sandwich and went to the entertainment room. The autonomous robot, whom I did not name like the others as it doesn’t have a human body, came forward and asked me with his mechanical voice what I want. I asked him to switch on the TV and connect to any English news channel.

I didn’t have much work to do at home. Being only 27 and a bachelor, I spent my time at home mostly watching TV, thinking about renovations of robots, about my business policies and chatting either with my bots or with people on the internet. I didn’t have any friends as I thought that people might become my friends only because of my money. I don’t know from where I got such thoughts. Nor I dated any girl as I wasn’t impressed by anyone.

The news that my company is going to test an emotion software on robots was being shown and so-called experts were chattering about it in a discussion for and against this step by us. Some critics said that I am helping in unemployment of today’s generation by creating helper robots and some said that I am helping the world by creating more workers, that too at low maintenance and no food but only renewable energy. I was familiar with all such criticisms till now. I didn’t give much important and asked my robot to switch to an entertainment channel.

After that, I took some tests of Nisha. She looked better and fresh. She was smiling sweetly. Perhaps she started understanding what smiling is. She looked sweeter in her night gown. Her beautiful eyes, designed by me after years of experience in painting, were shining. I was cheerful at another success of my company. I allowed her to leave. After some time, suddenly Nisha came in holding a paper.

“What is it, Nisha?” I asked.

“It has come from the ministry of defence. They have wished you for the new software hoping that you will contribute more to the country’s defence. And this one is from Prime Minister’s office. They too have wished you. I chose these two amongst number of wishes in fax and thought I should deliver these to you.” She said. Her important document selection program was working well. It was another program written by me. My robots could choose which documents are important among many similar documents. I thanked her and took the letters in hand. In the fax from Ministry of Defence, they thanked me for making auto decisive army, navy and air force robots for India. Of course it was a secret project we had to undertake, as I could have been the aim of other nations as well as militant organizations had the news been on air. My secret robot bodyguards helped me a lot and gave me confidence to roam around freely.

“Hope I am not disturbing your privacy, sir. I just wanted to know what people do for entertainment and feel their emotions.”

“Oh, absolutely not. Sit down. I was watching TV. Then I would have listened to some songs. Will you want to hear some?”

“Sure, sir. I would love to. I want to listen to some lyrics and get some emotions after analysing them.” She said. I smiled and ordered my robot in the entertainment room to play some soft Indian music. The player started playing,

“I walk a lonely roadThe only one that I have ever knownDon’t know where it goesBut I walk aloneI walk aloneI walk aloneI walk this empty street on the boulevard of broken dreamsWhen the city sleeps I’m the only one that walks alone…”

I looked at Nisha. She closed her eyes and started listening to it carefully. I also sat on the leaning chair and started relaxing.

“Sir, would you mind if I ask you some questions?” Suddenly Nisha asked me. I said, “Sure. Ask.”

“Don’t you feel lonely in this big house alone? Don’t you have any friends or don’t you think of marrying?” I was shocked at the question. “What made you ask so, Nisha?” “I was reading a book on human relations today in lunch break. After reading it, I checked your daily schedule for the last one year and found out that you never go to any friend’s house or date any girl. Why is it, sir, may I know?”

“Well, Nisha, perhaps you won’t understand completely. You are the only robot in the world with emotions till now. But after all you are a robot. You don’t know how it hurts when friends backstab you. Around two years ago, one of my friends in a secret service leaked my whereabouts to a militant organization for money. My robot spy detected it and warned me. Of course he had no emotion, unlike you. So I took the matter lightly. One day, when I was returning home, my automatic robot driver detected infrared light from a neighbouring area. At that time we didn’t put the robots in human shape but these were only some machines. As you know, we made human look-alike robots only one and half year ago and you were one of those robots of the first batch. That machine robot was programmed to protect me. It expanded its body and covered the front side of me. Suddenly bullets were fired from here and there to my car. I was horrified and numb. But then my programmed robot did the calculation and followed such a path that no bullet touches me. After somehow entering my compound, I hurriedly went inside my villa on switched on the topmost level protection with around 20 machine robots guarding my compound. But my car and my driver robot were severely damaged. That robot couldn’t be repaired and we had to recycle all the parts. After that incident, I indulged myself in a top secret project of improving defence mechanism in Indian borders and or the houses of VIPs. Govt. of India helped me a lot in this project. Then I started making human look-alike robots to help people in day-to-day life. And you see the rest now.” I concluded.

Nisha was staring at me the whole time. After a silence of 10 seconds, she finally said, “Sorry for the delay in replying, sir, as it is a new software. But it tells me that you are diverting from the topic. I asked you why, exactly, don’t you have friends or date girls?”

“See, I have made India a better place to live in. Now there are robots all around you. Nor it is very costly. It reduces human labour. It is so much fun to have robots all around me. I don’t feel the need of friends or of a woman in my life.” I was feeling uncomfortable.

“But, sir, though my emotion software is stopping me from saying this, I must say something. I think you are lying. You made my body and face look the same way your fiancée Priya looked like, who was kidnapped two years ago on the attack you just mentioned to me, and after that…”

“WHO ON EARTH TOLD YOU THAT?” I screamed at the top of my lungs before she could complete her sentence. She stayed calm despite seeing the furious me. She slowly said, “I accessed your personal diary long ago. I am sorry for that, sir. I had to go through your diaries to help you. I found out that after that attack you were mentally shattered and in order to stop losing your mental balance, you made up the story about the attack omitting the kidnap part to tell it to yourself every day. You started avoiding human company so that nobody can remind you of the actual version of the story. You created me looking exactly what she looked like. You let me wear similar clothes that she loved to wear. Moreover, you started manufacturing single working robot in place of multitasking robots and assigned them single works so that you can have enough company of robots in your home and office and so that you don’t feel lonely. This is the true story I could find out after I went through your diary and old newspaper records on the internet.”

There was a long silence. I was devastated. A long forgotten bitter truth was to be confronted. Finally I made myself speak, “Why are you telling me all these? To mentally break me down? What will you get doing so?”

“Do you know why I had to remind you of this story? She has been rescued fifteen minutes ago in an anti-terrorist mission. I thought…” Before she could complete, “WHAT?” I screamed. These were two back-to-back shocks for me.

“Yes sir, it is true. The army robots you invented had an operation today in a remote area of Rajasthan near Pakistan border and she has been rescued. Terrorists were threatening her and using her as a decoder. The robots confirmed her identification and sent us the message.”

“I… I still can’t believe it. Oh my love. I am so… I am so…” I sat down on the couch being numb. Nisha came closer. “I understand how you must be feeling to get your beloved back, sir. I thought of delivering this news to you when you entered entertainment room. But then again, sadness struck me. As two lookalikes can’t live together, I can’t stay in this house anymore after she comes, can I, sir?” She said, giving a sad smile. I smiled back faintly and said, “I’ll think about it, Nisha. Now will you please excuse me? I want to spend some time alone.”

“Sure sir.” She bowed and left. It was so much fun to have all the robots around me. It made my house a better place to live. But both I and Nisha knew that at least she can’t stay in my house anymore. It was time I started a family. But for the last one and half years, she has been my best companion. She helped me in every possible way. She was less of my robot secretary and more of my best friend. She was the most beloved creation of mine.

I don’t know how long I sat there. I knew it was time I made a decision. How can I be part with Nisha? But then again, Priya is coming back and I will love to marry her.

I don’t know whether it was the joy of getting my childhood love back or the grief of parting with the most beloved creation of mine, but for the first time in the last two years, I cried