What was the reason?

The next day Ms Dheera was waiting outside Tejas' door in her uniform and with her hair tied in a bun. She was holding a device in her left hand, which looked a lot like a watch with a large rectangular and transparent dial. Her fingers lingered on her forehead and sometimes slipped down to her long nose. For some reason, the wrinkles on her face were more profound and despite her tidy appearance, she looked disheveled. The bearded guard, who had stood there for a long time in attention, tried to give her a smile which she seemed to avoid.

"Finally, he will be released," he tried to make small talk, without losing his demeanor.

She nodded and put on a smile but didn't seem very eager to talk.

The guard said again adjusting his turban, "Where will he be living though?" This time he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as if trying to search for a definite answer.

"Arrangements have been made," she said unwillingly and bit her nails, even though they were well trimmed.

"What will he be doing for a living though?" he asked looking straight out the window, desperately trying to not end up in that silence.

"As I said, arrangements have been made." She didn't hide her annoyance in her tone this time.

But the guard didn't seem to mind. He tilted his head slightly and whispered, "Honestly, mam, I think their is something very fishy going on. Things like these don't happen so suddenly." His slanting eyes were open wide with a look of concern.

"Thanks for the warning," she nodded and pressed her forehead with her fingers again.

"By the way mam, do you not have other rounds to make today?" He had been a guard there for a month and never had he seen her at that time of the day.

"Jagjeet, can you not ask questions right now? I have a lot on my mind," she said this in very angry voice.

Jagjeet, feeling guilty, apologized and proceeded to walk in the corridor.

The door slid open. Tejas had tied his long hair in a ponytail, his beard was trimmed and he was wearing a clean black overall with full sleeves. Like the ones the caretakers wore. Nobody would believe that he was only 20 years old. Even though he looked tidy and the dark circles under his eyes were nearly gone, he looked weak and smaller in stature, owing to months of neglect.

"Where are your things?" Ms Dheera asked seeing that he was empty handed.

"I don't know what belongs to me." He rubbed his arms and looked down.

"I'll help, come on," she raced into the room.

She took a good look and analyzed the things very quietly. Tejas thought that she had momentarily gone to sleep. Then she clicked her fingers and said, "You can take the clothes you like because most probably they were yours. The hologram platform remains but you can transfer the pictures here." She placed the device she was holding on Tejas' left wrist and walked to the platform.

"It is an older model, but you can always upgrade it later." She double tapped at the middle of the platform, asked it to detect the device on his wrist.

On detection, the platform displayed, "Need to change the dimensions of the image for successful transfer." While she was busy making the snapshots compatible, Tejas was tapping his device. The dial unfolded into an even bigger but lighter rectangle. The frame of the dial expanded too. The screen didn't have many icons except for one large icon of a black and white rabbit.

"Can you check if you've received them?" Ms Dheera asked.

Before he could do anything, he saw the bunny hop and stand on his hind legs. It said, "You have new snapshots in your cloud. Thank you."

"I had forgotten about that feature." She hit her forehead lightly and walked around the room.

Meanwhile he waited for the bunny icon to become still and touched it when it had returned to its formal state.

"Your device is on 'Assistant mode'. 'Mr. Gosh' will do the tasks with just a voice command. Try saying 'Hello' to your assistant."

He brought the device closer and said in a low voice, "Hello, Mr. Ghosh."

The rabbit moved his whiskers and stood on his hind legs. "Hello, Mr Tejas. How can I help you?"

But Ms Dheera interrupted him before he could give a command.

"I don't think you'll need anything else though," she turned to him and patted his shoulder, "You're good to go. Amenities will be provided, don't worry."

Ms Dheera walked to the door while Tejas hurried to gather some clothes. When his hands were full, he asked, "One last question, mam."

He lifted his hands, "Where do I carry these?"

"I'm so sorry." She rushed to the corner where the window was and said, "Tejas' travel tokri."

A black and brown basket like suitcase, with wheels at all four corners, automatically slid from a hidden closet. It carried itself like a race car.

"Is that a robot?" Tejas beamed with happiness.

Ms Dheera nodded.

"As you can see, you do not need to carry it around. It will find it's own place in any modes of transport and will follow you around, if you want it to."

The 'tokri' stopped infront of him and its top opened, revealing a spacious inner side.

"The best part is, it arranges your clothes for you."

He placed the clothes and when Ms Dheera said, "Thank you, tokri", the lid closed. A short chiming sound followed. In only a few seconds, the device assistant said, 'Connection with tokri successfully.'

Tejas walked to the door and was so pleased to see his luggage move the way it did.

"Would you like to check one last time for any other belongings you might want?"

"No, I'm good."

Ms Dheera gave a broad smile. Her narrow eyes became even narrower and her wrinkles looked so pronounced. But before they reached the ramp, she stopped and called, "Jagjeet, can you come here?"

Jagjeet jogged towards them and stood in attention.

"Sorry if I was too harsh on you. "

"No problem mam," saying so he gave a smile, bowed in a namaste and jogged back to his position.

They too walked down the ramp.