Radhika logs in
Date: April 2021. Content warning: Profanity. The story is incomplete.

Radhika looked at the tree tops of the trees in the Sanjay Gandhi National park through the bars of the Mumbai local. Occurences of animals visiting the city had increased since the pandemic began. She always hoped to see a panther on her route, but never had any luck.

“Radhika’s owners are out of town today”, Maya, a slightly older local-mate of Radhika gossiped to Lakshmi, another co-passenger.

“Oooh, so what is the plan? Going to nap in their bed?” Lakshmi put down her phone and turned towards Radhika and Maya.

“Forget about it, Radhika is really a good bai, she would never.” Maya laughed. Radhika pretended to be interested in something outside the train.

“Oh, come on, have a little fun. Your fat owner won’t mind even if he finds out” Maya punched her playfully. She then came closer and said “use his Jee-one”.

This was a little bit too much for Radhika, so she pulled out her earphones from her purse and plugged them in her ears, ignoring Maya and Lakshmi.

“I told you, she’s a pussy.” Maya scoffed to Lakshmi.

“My owner caught me last time when I tried to use her Jee-one” Lakshmi said, “not sure if it’s a great idea, the machine knows when a bai is using it”

“Long press the circle button, that's how you fool it.” Maya said.

Radhika heard this conversation but there was no way she was going to touch the Jee-one. She knew how it was used but it was a great risk. Besides, she always considered herself to be an honest person.

When she reached the building where she worked, she tightened her face-mask, tied her hair and closed her eyes before stepping into the decontamination chamber for the workers. She closed her eyes, held up her arms and stood with her legs apart. She was sprayed on from all sides and then blow dried. She always enjoyed the drying.

She typed in the password by gestures at the door. It opened to let her in. As usual she kept her shoes and purse in the decontamination chamber and headed for the kitchen.

The kitchen was the only room she was allowed to be in. The walls of the corridor and the kitchen were draped in plastic strips. They generally kept their utensils and clothes in baskets near the door. Today she did not have to cook as her owners were out of town.

She put the clothes in the washing machine and started washing the dishes. Instead of feeling freer now that she was alone, she felt even more watched as this would be the situation in which anyone would expect her to misbehave or steal.

…

He looked at the sunset from a high tree branch he’d just climbed to. He had killed a rabbit and a deer today, eaten the rabbit and stashed away the deer. He was trying to unstick the rabbit hair from his gums as he looked at the Sun disappearing behind the trees.

He had never felt so happy. He laughed as he zoomed across the field on his flying broomstick. He was quick enough to dodge the speeding bludger. He had just spotted the snitch. He nosedived and caught the snitch crashing full speed into the ground. The ground stretched like a trampoline and shot him back in the sky broomless. All his teammates cheered and jumped on the bouncy ground from their hovering broomsticks and came to huddle and celebrate near him.

“Good game Sirius66!” a girl with pink hair slapped his back.

“Anyone in for Aegon’s conquest?” A guy asked. All these people were good looking.

“Noo, I need to work. Bye!” The pink haired girl disappeared immediately after bidding bye.

At this point Sirius66 realised he was holding a remote. He instinctively pressed the big red button.

“Welcome back to the Jee-one lounge, Mr. Batra.” An AI butler wearing a nice suit expressed a greeting.

“Mr. Batra?” She felt really confused. “I’m sorry, I’m very disoriented right now. Is that my name?” she asked the butler.

“Yes, Mr. Batra. It is natural to feel disoriented, I think you have taken three times the normal amount of neurofluid. Would you like to know your history today, if it would help?” The butler replied.

“Yes please, tell me” Radhika demanded.

“You dreamed through half your library and later played three offline video games and one online multiplayer video game “.

“Okay, you are dismissed.” Radhika made a shooing gesture. He disappeared. She was surprised at her fluency in English. When she spoke, she sounded like a man. She repeated what the butler told her in her mind and tried to make sense of it. Was she dreaming? She got up from the red cushioned chair she was sitting on and moved to the mirror.

She wasn’t wearing a salwar-kameez, but a nice firangi dark suit. She was a man. A well built one. When she looked at her face, she knew immediately what was happening. She was looking at her employer’s face, although he looked younger and with a sharper jawline. She must be using the Jee-one. But how did she end up here? It felt weird to refer to herself as a ‘her’. She only remembered that her name is Radhika, but none of that felt real. This place, she looked around, seemed familiar. She knew her way around this room. It had a bookshelf, a window (outside of which there were presumably farms of chai and a misty weather), a fireplace, a chair and a wooden door.

Where Radhika would have expected fear and anxiety after realising that she had logged into Batra’s Jee-one, she felt normal and strangely confident. She felt in place.

“Um..” she wanted to recall the Butler. “Butler?”

“Hi, you can call me Alfred.” The Butler reappeared “How may I help you?”

“Show me what else I can do” she said.

“Usually you go to work sir, apart from that I can suggest you some trending servers.”

“Take me to work” she said.

“Very well, connecting to the internet.” Alfred replied.

She was now standing in an office. It seemed like Mr. Batra’s original office in Mahim, but bigger and cleaner. Outside the window she saw the streets of Mumbai to her surprise, and not scenery. There was also vehicular noise in the background. She saw his reflection in the glass table. Here he looked his usual, fat bellied and greying haired bossman Mr. Batra.

As she was looking at his bookshelf, a couple entered the office. The woman’s shirt buttons were undone. They were clearly making out. When they saw their boss, they were petrified.

“I’m so sorry sir, we thought you were on a vacation. It is lunch break, uhm ..” the man starting explaining his best.

“Get back to your stations” Batra said.