Mystery deepens....Virtually possible part 5

Mystery deepens ..Virtually possible part 5

""Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;""

Mr.Dey was reciting on the roof of the building while Samaranand was standing beside him when the round red object at the far eastern sky was spinning up, the horizon was gradually turning from dark to red and then white, they were watching sunrise at Rajarhat.

Samaranand joined in reciting the famous “The Road not taken’ poem of Robert Frost,
 he recited the next 4 lines:

"'Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,""

‘Yes, it is my favourite poem too!” He told Mr.Dey. 
Mr Dey said, " Our organisation is like that poem, we took the other path. I will explain you later."

Samaranand was invited to see the sunrise; This is how it happened that day.

He could hear the sound of morning crows from his bed in Rajarhat where Mr.Dey had brought him. He realized that he was apparently captive and he himself decided to play along as no coercive treatment was meted out to him.  It was 5.30 am, he got up and shuffled to the attached bathroom. He came out after freshening up when heard a knock on the door.

With a feebly cough Mr.Dey entered and appeared to be happy seeing Samaranand to be ready.

‘Oh,you are up! Come with me to the roof to watch the sunrise.”

Samaranand followed him through the hall where there was a different group of youngsters on the computers, engrossed in their work. They went out to a running corridor with two lifts. From the marking on the lift he could know that he was in 5^th floor of a 10 floor building. It did not look like any residential complex, he could see the doors of two other rooms.

Mr.Dey smiled and said, ‘’ You have guessed correctly, this building belongs to our organization. Each floor has office space plus attached guestrooms like this floor. Now we will go up to 10^th floor and then walk up the stair to the roof.’

Samaranand became more curious to know about the illusive organization.

The morning was chilly both of them were in pajama and kurta with shawls wrapped around , it was chilly still and more so in the wide open Rajarhat. By 6.30 sun was fully up, MrDey invited Samaranand to go down.

They were sitting in a dining hall in 5^th floor having tea.

Samaranand could not check his curiosity,” Who are you, what does the organization do?”

Mr.Dey smiled and said, “Gradually you will come to know about us. First we finish tea and then you take bath, we will have breakfast and after that when our general shift staff come then I will take you round to show our activities.”

Samranand was matured enough to control his curiosity and also realized M.Dey was trying to convince him something.

Mr.Dey handed over a wireless bone contact headphone to him with a mike and said whatever you require can tell in that mike and will get it. Even you can listen to your favourite music simply by saying ‘Ok,Sanku play so and so song..!”

He put that on and said ‘Ok,Sanku” when he heard a silky male voice responding in English “What can I do? Do you want me to play your favourite Rabindrasangeet fom your Google play list?”

He was taken aback to find that Sanku has hacked his Google home account.

Mr.Dey looked serenely at him and said, ‘We have all information about your likes and dislikes. Enjoy our hospitality. You can ask Sanku to arrange your breakfast in your room. Once you are done ask Sanku to inform me then I will come and take you round. Yes we have developed this AI (artificial intelligence) and named it Sanku as a tribute to Satyajit Ray who created the eccentric scientist Sanku. See you till then!”

Saying those words Mr.Dey walked out.

Samaranand had watched a movie called Her where the protagonist Theodore Twombly would be constantly chatting to some Samantha through a similar headphone. Samantha was an AI and serving many other clients simultaneously. He realized that he now had an AI to help him.He has a Google home where he has to say simply “Ok,Google" before requesting for music or any information. This AI was part Samantha part Google Home.

He mischievously said, “Ok,Sanku can you help me to get out of this place.’

He heard a chuckle and heard Sanku in his headphone,’Yes I can guide you out, even I can call Uber for you but I have instructions to make sure that you remain within the periphery of this floor.” Samaranad realized that through the headphone he was geo tracked or may be the attire which he was wearing may have RFID(radio frequency identification) stuck somewhere in the lining or close circuit cameras were monitoring his movement. He became more eager to know about that smart organization which can develop their own AI. For those moments he forgot that Somaya was still missing, when suddenly came back to reality he started thinking that mystery of Soumay’s disappearance would be gradually revealed and hoped nothing bad had happened to him.

He requested Sanku to play Mood from his playlist in Google play and walked towards his room.
He went back to his room through that hall with bank of computers and robotic employees with headphone strapped. While he passed them with his headphone playing a soothing old Hindi film song they did not even look up or acknowledged his presence. As if he was invisible.
He took bath and then put on the headphone to order breakfast on Sanku.
"Ok,Sanku!"
"What can i do for you?" the unearthly voice floated in his headphone.
"Get me toast and fried egg with sunny side up."
"Anything else? Tea or coffee?'
"Oh,yes,get me coffee !"
"No sugar! i suppose!"
Samaranand was surprised to know that Sanku knows that he does not take sugar in tea or coffee.
"Your breakfast will be served in 20 minutes!"
Yes, a smartly dressed young-man entered with a tray of breakfast ordered by him.
He sat by the window table while enjoying his breakfast and requested Sanku to play songs of Hemant Kumar from his playlist in Google.
He forgot that he was a captive and got lost in music and that leisure breakfast, it was a feeling of being in a resort where he was getting whatever he was asking. He was lost in the thought of why was he brought there.... was he a captive or a guest ?

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Many of the past happenings are so much deeply etched in my mind that those often appear as though it has happened only yesterday, kind of cached in my memory stick of my subconscious mind..

My walk in Shillong at the dead of the night in December of 1966 when i had just joined  Gauhati Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation is one such incident. Those days during 65 to 66 more or less every alternate month I would be in Shillong with my friend Pranjal Sen, he originally belonged to that place. Sometimes I would stay in his house but most of the time it would be hotel. It was my first job after finishing  engineering degree so hotels would be ordinary budget type, mostly wooden shacks, as a matter of fact those days most of the houses in Shillong were made of wood with slanting roof, typical of hill stations.

During that fateful trip I was staying in a hotel, it was within one kilometer from Pranjal's place. That night I had dinner in his house, it got late as we were having an excellent adda, he started insisting that I stay back but  I said bravely, “Come on! Don’t worry nothing will happen, I will safely walk down to my hotel!’’

It was freezing cold of December, I zipped my jacket up-to the neck, no cap or any scarf, it was the don’t care attitude of youth. The streets were deserted, the light from the incandescent bulb of the street light was throwing a cone of light in the mist ,  the light around was diffused, one side had houses and the other side the usual rise of hills along the  road. After walking for a few meters all my bravado evaporated, heavy fog was descending, the shadowy pine trees were appearing as giants ,I started cursing myself for taking such a foolhardy decision of walking back instead of staying back in the warmth of Pranjal's house. I was in half a mind to turn back but garnered enough courage to trudge the remaining distance.

After sometimes I started having a feeling that as though someone was following me,started getting goose pimple, i could hear a faint footstep behind, I looked back there was no one.I stopped,  the footsteps stopped. I was walking on footpath. A group of noisy Khasi boys and girls appeared from the opposite side, they  waved at me and went the other way, that interlude gave me some relief. I decided to walk on the road, , by walking in the center of the road I would be able to hear the  footsteps  on the bitumen topped road of the guy following me. Those days the heels of my leathers shoes would have metal studs to reduce the wear out, that was the style those days. In the dead of the night my shoes were making “khut, khut..” sound and which was sounding louder and multidimensional because of echo, the sound was bouncing back to me from the rocks of the hills surrounding the road . So it was me alone in that foggy road, diffused light and the echo of my own footsteps scaring me plus a nagging feeling that someone was following me, it was becoming too much for me to bear.  I more or less started running to reach the safety of my hotel. It was an uphill run , finally I saw the light of my hotel, that light acted as a beacon of hope to me, i steered myself towards the hotel and reached the hotel huffing puffing.. The manager was surprised to see me running in and said, “Sir, what happened?''
"I think someone was following me!I heard footsteps behind me."I said by moving towards the fireplace in the lobby to warm myself.
"No sir, you have been hearing your own footsteps, it is very common in hills when there is silence like now in the night, Shillong is a peaceful place , safe for people even in the night."
I thought to myself that he might be right, i was hearing echo of my footstep when it was bouncing on small rocks.

Though nothing untoward happened that night but still that half an hour walk has remained permanently etched in my mind and appears in my dream in various forms.

The other day I dreamt that I was walking on that same road in my that age of 1966, tight pants, jacket and studded shoes. Making that ‘’khut khut..’’ sound and then I heard a song playing at a distance…it was Hemant Kumar singing  ”Jane who kaisey..” I realized that somehow i have to reach the source of that sound for my safety, the sound of the song was becoming louder as i was nearing the source, i started walking faster. I woke up with a start and that song was still playing, it was 12.30 am in the night, my wife was asleep and the song was wafting from the drawing room. I got up , went to the drawing room, switched on the light.Looked around for the source of the song , found that it was the device in which i was playing songs from gana.com via WiFi in the afternoon, though i had stopped it but somehow it got keyed in to gana.com again in the midnight and started playing on its own. I am yet to find a conclusive proof of how it started on its own. I know in the night the cockroaches rule our house no matter how much Hit my wife sprays. I reasoned that those cockroaches might have triggered that device while running over it and which got lighted  to the Gana.com as it was already Wi-Fi enabled.This theory of mine of cockroaches causing the device to play is a far fetched one.  I took the device , stopped the song, disabled the Wifi of the device. After that incidence every night before going for sleep I double check all my devices and lock those down. No doubt that I was invaded by artificial intelligence that night!