Promises are meant to be broken

“Happy birthday Grandpa!” said Sneha walking into Dr. Agarwal’s room “75 cool! And still going strong, what’s your secret?” “Thanks dear, the Secret! It’s no drinking, no smoking and definitely no sex before marriage” “Grandpa! I rather live a short life & enjoy it than living a long boring life” said Sneha with a laugh & continued “How can you lecture me about not drinking when you don’t even go one day without drinking?” Agarwal smiles. “Ok! Grandpa! Let’s make a deal, you quit drinking everyday and I will stop drinking and smoking, what say? deal?” taking Sneha’s hand  Agarwal replies “Deal”

“Grandpa, What you doing? Today morning you promised me you won’t be drinking & you already drinking, Deals Off!” said Sneha walking into the balcony were her grandfather was having a drink. Dr. Agarwal whispered “Promises are meant to be broken” “Mummy tells me you never used to drink till some 20 years ago, what happened?” asked Sneha while poring herself a drink.

Agarwal looking into the night sky replies “I purposely killed a patient” “What!” exclaimed Sneha. You killed a patient”

Dr. Agarwal replies with a sigh “Well! I had to tell the truth someday” He continued

“I was just starting as an intern at the hospital when I met Susan, your grandmother”

---X---

“Hi come in! Take a seat” said Agarwal to Susan as she walked into his office. ”Aren’t you a bit too cute to be a doctor?, hey Sorry I didn’t mean to say that out aloud” “It’s Ok Ma’am!”said a blushing Agarwal to Susan “Please sit & tell me what’s wrong” “Don’t call me ma’am it makes me feel so old, call me Susan” replied Susan taking the chair “OK! Susan, what’s wrong?” “I am having fever and feeling bit sluggish for last 7 days” “Ok! We will do a few blood tests and check” Handing over a file she had on her lap Susan said “Here, I already took the test, I was a bit worried you see” “Ok! Your results look pretty normal, Now since you have gone ahead and taken these blood test I feel that you might have tried to self-medicate also” Smiling Susan admits “Only crocin” “Ok! Here am writing a few medicines, take them 3times a day for next 2days. ok?”

“Hey Susan, Come in, take a seat, you are looking great today, how are you feeling?” “All better Doc, feeling great, the medicines really worked, I am here to ask you something” “Sit down Susan! What’s wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong Doc” replies Susan smiling “I just wanted to ask if you are free tonight for a cup of coffee” “Wow!! You are asking me out! Wow! Sure, how about 7ish today” “That will be great Doc, waiting for tonight” said Susan smiling getting up to leave.

---X---

“That day was my first date with your Grandma” “Cool, Grandma asked you out” exclaimed Sneha. With a smile Agarwal replied “Ya, It was one of the things I loved about her. She was strong, knew what she wanted and got what she wanted”

“That first date led to a series of dates, late nights on phone & just like that I found myself proposing to her”

---X---

“Michael, I am so glad you came” said Agarwal “Susan, this is Michael, my friend from school, I have told you about him” Susan replies “Yes! If you weren’t a guy I would be really jealous from the way he talks about you” “Shut up Susan!!” says Agarwal with a smile on his face. Michael giving the gift he had in his hand to his best friend says “Buddy, we have a lot to catch up on, but right now enjoy your marriage day with this beautiful lady, and you really have to tell me how you got her to say YES to you”

---X---

“My wedding day was the first day when Susan met my friend and betrayer Michael” “Betrayer?” asked Sneha. “Yes Betrayer! I found out he is a betrayer 7 years into our marriage, 5 years after your mother was born. I clearly remember the weekend I had just been promoted to Assistant to the Chief of Medicine."

---X--

“Dear look after Shikha, I am going out" said Susan to Agarwal who sat watching his daughter sleep. Turning towards Susan he exclaims “Wow!! You have really dressed yourself up for your little kitty party; do you really need to go? Can’t you come with me, you know they are hosting the party for me” “All I have being hearing last 3 weeks is about your promotion, sorry sweetie but I have to meet my friends” saying this Susan walks out after giving Agarwal a peck on his cheek.

After the party with everyone coming and congratulating him, Agarwal thinks “I better take a cab back considering how much I drank, Its good that Susan didn’t come, she would have killed me” Just about to call for a cab when looking across the road he sees Susan kissing Michael then climbing into a cab and leaving. Before he can react Michael climbs into another cab and also moves off.

“Look Sweetie Papa is home” says Susan looking at Agarwal and talking to Shikha. “Susan, I need to talk to you” “What’s up sweetie-pie?” ask Susan scowling at him. “Shikha go and play in your room I need to talk to your mother” Shikha picks up her toys and runs to her room. Susan looking worried asks “what happened?”

“I saw you kissing Michael today, you said you are with your friends, and you were cheating on me with my friend” “Oh! So you found out. Ya, I have being having your friend for about 1 year now” “What?” “You were either always busy with your work or playing with Shikha, you never had time for me, He understands me, I wanted him, and I took him” “What! Susan you are married, you are my wife, you are a mother and you are talking like this” “Yes! I was about to tell you soon, good you found out, I am asking for a divorce, the Lawyer will talk to you soon” “What!” exclaimed Agarwal, getting desperate he adds “What about the promises you made, to love me for ever, to death never part?” Susan replied in a cold voice “Promises are meant to be broken”

---X---

“What?” exclaimed Sneha. Dr.Agarwal took a sip before repling “She walked out of the house then, Next day I got a divorce notice from her and only met her again in court.  As the settlement I got to keep your mother Shikha, while she got half the wealth and the house.” Rubbing a tear off his face Agarwal continued “Few of my friends helped me through that, Shikha was my bright light, I picked myself up for her, brought a new house and started a new life without her mother” “Dam! She was a bitch! But how does it connect to you killing someone?” asks Sneha. ““It happened about 10 years after the divorce; Michael was admitted to the hospital”

---X--

“Dr. Agarwal, this patient in room 405 is requesting that he be treated by you” said Nurse Gloria. “Who’s that? And why is he requesting for me” “His name is Michael he was admitted yesterday complaining of pain in the left side of the body, a minor heart attack, he is stable now, but is requesting for you” Hearing Michael’s name Agarwal was shocked, he started thinking “Can it be him? It can’t be, there are many Michael in this city, but if it is him, Heart attack, good if that bastard dies” “Please ask Dr. Siddhartha to handle him, Gloria.  Am busy.”

“You don’t want to treat him because of me isn’t it” says Susan standing at the door. Startled seeing Susan Agarwal replies “No! What kind of doctor do you think I am, I am a professional, noting personal can come between me and saving a patient’s life.” “Dear, Why can’t you check him, he is in pain and he trusts you. He still considers you as his best friend and is still hurt that you don’t talk to him, it was not his fault what happened; I just took what I wanted” Glaring at his ex-wife Agarwal replies “Ok! I will check up on him”

“Come in Agarwal, Michael has just gone to sleep; the nurse came in and gave some medicines” “OK! Let me check what he is taking, I will come back later when he is awake” replying thus Agarwal exits the room and goes to check what medication Michael has been put on. Agarwal notices that Michaels has been prescribed Digoxin, he quietly increases the dose.

---X---

“Michael died 2 days later” “What? How could you do that Grandpa” asks Sneha, Agarwal looks down and takes another sip from the glass, “I did it, at that time I just wanted him dead, I am so sorry” Sneha asks in a quite voice “what about the Hippocratic oath?” Agarwal looking at Sneha replies “Promises are meant to be broken”

STOP!!

“Hey, Alan! Did you read this” asked Marcy waving the Times as she walked into the lab set up by her husband in the basement. Dr. Alan shook his head more interested in the insertion he was doing into a lab mice than in anything else. Marcy shaking her head while watching her husband poking something into a mice said” Wait! I will read it out for you,

“This year we are celebrating the silver jubilee of the end of the 3rd world war; many events are planned this year, “Year 2120. The Year of Peace” Its been 25 years after the Great War, Any war great or small brings along with it untold destruction, But in the end there could be only one victor in the war. Forming the United Federation of Earth. A dream that all nations, all cultures coming under one government that will take Humanity to new heights…”

Alan “Marcy, quit reading that and come and see this” Marcy irritably closes the paper and walks to the table her husband was working upon, Marcy “What are those things you putting into the mice’s necks? Some kind of wires, what are you doing?”

“They are wires Marcy, Look at this, I can feed data into this computer here and make the mice do what ever I want them to.”

“WHAT??”

“See Marcy thoughts in the brain are just electrical signals, so if you input the right electrical signals into the brain, through these wires you can put thoughts into the mouse.”

“So you are telling me these mice can be controlled by you through these wires” “Exactly, look, I have been studying their brain signals for weeks, I have programmed this computer to give the mouse exact signals, If I want it to go left, then I type left here in the computer which will translate it into exact electrical signals to tell the mouse brain to turn left”

“Great! Yet another device for humans to manipulate nature”

“Hahaha!! Laugh at me if you want Marcy, but look at this, not only can we send impulses to the brain but also train it, look this mouse has never seen this maze, but in 10 minutes I can train it to pass the maze as though it has done it a 100 times before.”

-----------------------X----------------------

“Dear!, did you hear that the trials of our device on Monkeys and primates have been successful, Its just going to be a few days before approval for human trails comes in, This is going to be huge for BRAINSERT , our stock have climbed 25 points in last 2 days.” “Alan, do you really think this insertion of learning directly into the brain is such a smart thing?”

“Marcy, Haven't you been seeing the kind of research we have been doing for the last 2 years? Didn’t you see how just 3 weeks back Primate P-38 was trained to use a computer and drive a car like a human, train the brain and the brain trains the body, its all in the brain Marcy!, All in the brain! I got to run I got a meeting with the directors in 30 minutes”

-----------------------X----------------------

“Hello Dear! You are just in time, I was just about to watch your interview, how was it?” “It went great Marcy!! Wait you listen to it” said Alan while turning on the Television

“Hi, Welcome all to another episode of Evening with Divya, today we have a special guest at the Studio Today,Seven years before Dr. Alan was almost a unheard name in the world, now his invention and his company BRAINSERT has made him one of the richest persons in the world, In this world of instant gratification, who wants to spend time learning, when we can learn stuff in 5 minutes just by plugging ourselves into a system, The field of education has not remained the same, want to learn Karate, or to fly a Jet, or to cook a omelet, or to learn a new language, you plug yourself into the system and you have complete mastery over it in 10 minutes, Today the President of United Federation of Earth has just signed the bill that makes it legal for any child above the age of 5 to have BRAINSERT inserted into them, Today we have with us Dr. Alan who agreed to take time off his busy schedule and talk to us about what this means to us and humanity at large, Welcome Dr. Alan”

“Thank you, Divya, It my pleasure to be here today”

“Dr. Alan your company BRAINSERT has taken us by the storm, you might be pretty proud of yourself”

Marcy jokingly “Alan dear, you look great on TV, if not BRAINSERT you could really have become an actor” “Hahahah!! Thanks dear! But no thanks”

Alan with a smile replies “We are all on earth only for a short time, so why waste time on learning stuff that is already know to others, Knowledge our forefathers gathered with years of hard work, why can’t we just train our brain with the knowledge that’s already present, that’s the basic philosophy we are trying to achieve at BRAINSERT,”

Divya “Today the president has made it legal for any kid above the age of 5 to have the insertion made into them, that they can be trained using your system, But why the age of 5”

“Well Divya, for a child below 5 years the brain is still developing and all connections hasn’t been formed yet, so connecting a kid below the age of 5 would be dangerous”

“How much danger would an average adult be if he gets implanted with BRAINSERT”

“No Danger at all! BRAINSERT is the product of hard work of 7 years, we have researched everything about which element to make BRAINSERT from to where exactly to place, trust me, insertion of BRAINSERT is no more dangerous than picking yourself with a needle to give a blood test, and that’s the only amount of pain you will experience”

“Alan the device BRAINSERT makes, how large is it?” Alan holds up a black object, 1mm long and 1 mm in diameter, Divya exclaims “That small!”

“Yes” Alan replies with a smile “I have got that reaction a lot, the advances in nano technology has allowed us to miniatures everything into this, this 1mm long device is your eternal teacher, heat from the body powers it, it is inserted directly below the brain, when ever you want to learn something, All you got to do is log onto BRAINSERT website, select what you want to learn, pay for it and it will be downloaded into your brain in 10 minutes using Radio waves by this 1mm device”

Divya “Sir, there is a rumor that this is yet another attempt by the government to control us, and there is some switch with the government that can control or kill us all at a instant after we are implanted”

“Nonsense, its just another of those conspiracy theories, the government has just made it legal for all kids above the age of 5 to get BRAINSERT implanted, it has not made it a rule, if you don’t want to be implanted don’t get implanted, but yes then you lose time learning stuff which your implanted friend would learn in minutes”

Divya concluded saying “This has been an interesting conversation Dr. Alan, but I am sorry we are running short of time, thank you once again for coming on the show”

“The pleasure has been all mine”

“Alan that was a great Interview, you must be feeling great right now!” exclaimed Marcy while switching off the TV set and turning towards him. “Thanks Marcy, so how was your day?” “Pretty much the usual, Nothing great. Dear can I ask you something? That thing Divya asked you about a switch that the government can kill us all is that true?”

Alan with a frown on his face, “ Marcy you know, how it was at the start, we didn’t have money to continue our research, so we approached the government for grants, and we were laughed at! But Chief Ban Shen, The then head of law enforcement saw how good our device would be to rehalibate criminals, if this device is inside their head, next time they are seen repeating a crime the device would just be send a signal stop and it would stop them immediately, Stop them dead! All criminals being released from the prison are being implanted with our device and it’s been going for last 3 years”

Marcy shocked by what she hears “what about the devices which are going to be put into kids now, People who are not criminals?”

Alan “They still contain the same code, But the government doesn’t have a button or anything that can stop every human implanted, but the base is in place, it will be very easy to design a command that can send out a radio signal telling all the BRAINSERTs to stop the human they are inserted into.” Looking at the shocked face of his wife, he continues “Don’t worry dear, our system is very secure, no one will be send out any such signal without a very high security clearance,”

-----------------------X----------------------

“Justin be careful!” screams Chopra, its not a play thing, I have been working on this for last two years,

“Chill Buddy!! Your work is amazing, you have got into BRAINSERT and you are able to control everyone, So much power and you haven’t been using it, I am helping you get the benefit out of this, watch me make my little brother clean both mine and his room” saying this Justin types “Clean room” on to the laptop.

Chopra swatting his hand away before Justin hit the return key; take the laptop away from his friend and puts on his table. With his hands on his hips like lecturing to a kid he says with a shaky voice “Justin, I have told you so many times, the sentences should be specific, it should always be directed at a person, if you had actually send the command we all would be stuck cleaning rooms, Always direct your commands at a person. Or the commands become Global command and everyone on earth starts doing that.” Opening a program with a list of numbers next to names Chopra says “Look this is the mapping of the unique Identification No within the chip to each persons name, you have to give the command the exact ID understood”

“I won’t be able to remember 16digit combinations of numbers every time I give a command, how do you give commands so quickly”

“Simple I have made a enum, indexing the IDs I use frequently with easy to remember names, like the comic book store guys name is COMIC, that’s how I get him to give me free comics”

“Great Dude, but I still can’t understand how you could so easily get by BRAINSERT’s firewall, the company is older than you and a 19 year old virgin can by pass its defense, Man Chopra! You are amazing dude” “JACKASS”

“Justin! What the hell! How did I reach here” exclaims Maxie. Justin turns and looks at Maxie, his best friend from college standing in her night clothes in his room just like his dream come true.

“Hi Maxie, why don’t you make your self comfortable” saying this Justin types on the laptop “MAXIE Sit on the Couch.”

Justin watches Maxie making her way to the couch to sit, and watches her dress slide up her leg while she places herself down on the couch. Maxie “What the hell is happening, how am I here, last I was in my house getting ready to bed now I am in your room, What’s going on Justin?”

Suddenly Chopra, standing at the door, “JUSTIN, who is this? We agreed that our work should remain secret”

Justin “Relax buddy, She is totally under control, Hey Maxie, this is Chopra the brains behind this, They always said that BRAINSERT’s security is top class, wonder what they would be saying if they knew an 1st year degree student could break it” turning toward Chopra “I am still surprised that you have such a great brain behind that thick glasses”

Maxie in a scared little voice “what’s going on Justin, you guys are scaring me”.

Justin “Maxie, relax, Remember how just yesterday you were surprised at how Pasang the richest guy in our city just gifted me the latest McLaren 2200xx, and you wondered what made him do it?”Maxie Bit Scared “Ya”

Justin “Well say thanks to Chopra, he designed it all, now we can make anyone do anything we want them to do” Maxie “What!! Are you insane, what if they catch you, you will go to jail, WAIT, you brought me here, and in my night clothes, YOU BASTARDS”

Justin smiling types “MAXIE You love Justin, you always want to see him happy and obey everything he tells you” Maxie sits there looking dreamily at Justin

Chopra “BASTARD, you could have any girl in the world and you brought her here?” Justin with a smirk on his face “Why are you so pissed Chopra, you too can get a girl buddy, we are the king of the world”

Chopra lamely says “But I love her” Justin exclaims“What!! Wait buddy, why don’t you go & get a drink. We will talk about her”

Chopra leaves the room to get a beer, when he comes back he sees Justin and Maxie making out, and the computer screen blinking the words“MAXIE make love to me.”

Chopra watches himself type “STOP”