3 EOL

Rashmi, Rahmat's mother had just started cooking dinner during the evening time when a few neighbours came to her with the news of her son's illness. She was so grief striken that she left her home right away and went to the healer Sanchita's place. While sobbing hysterically, she asked Sanchita: " Will my boy be alright Sanchu?"

Sanchita : I have done all I can Rashmi. It's now in HIS ( GOD'S) hands. Let's wait the night and see what happens.

Meanwhile, while the paddy farmers were at the healer's place, the emir (Noble landowner under the emperor, who oversees the well being of the territory provided by the Alamgir) Al Farooq was hatching a cruel plot. This year the farmers had not been able to pay the requisite amount of taxes till now to sate his greed. Every year he bullies them to get the tax money and sends only a percentage of that to the emperor's treasury. The Alamgir did not know that he was committing such a heinous crime and that spurred on the emir to continue doing what he does best : grind the poor to dust. When he heard that the farmers had taken the day off, his cruelty knew no bounds. The man with his soldiers went to the village and ordered the soldiers to burn down all the huts starting with the healer's hut. Perturbed, one of the soldiers asked him : " With due respect Emir, if we set fire to the huts, there may be widespread repurcussions. This action may foment a rebellion among the farmers."

Emir Al Farooq : Are you not a soldier ? Do you get paid for giving me unsolicited advices? You know nothing. These cretins need to be taught a lesson. They need to understand that it's not fine to not work and expect the kingdom to get them out of their sorry state. Do as I say and burn the grouping of huts there to the ground.

Soldier : But what about the people in the huts ?

Emir : What about them? Is there a shortage of farmers in this damn village? Go and do the job that you are told to do. Let a few die. Only then these pests will understand the importance of doing their job properly without taking even a single day off.

And so the soldiers went and bolted a few huts from the outside and set fire to them. As people started to panic and scream, a lot of villagers gathered and tried to douse the fire and open the huts to let the people out ; but on the Emir's orders, they were all beaten black and blue and stopped from doing that. Only after the screaming had stopped and the last embers of the fire were gleefully consuming the remnants of the dilapidated huts that were set fire to, did the Emir and his band of cruel cohorts left the village.

This was a sad day, a very sad day indeed . The young lad Rahmat had died along with his parents and the village healer Sanchita. He did not die due to the shock of the phenomenon that he had experienced earlier ; but due to pure greed of a noble of the territory. A young lad of tremendous potential had passed away along with quite a few villagers without getting the time to harness his future. This should have been the end for this soul. This is where it should have ended. But it was not to be so.

**********************************************

Somewhere else :

It was a big room containing a lot of contraptions. A machine suddenly sprung to life and started emitting harmonic sounds. This brought the man who had almost fallen to stupor out of his slumber. When he looked at the screen of the machine, it read : " Subject 1 EOL (End of Life) reached. First contact initiated. Doom sequence installed. Proceed to next subject ?"

The man read the words and he immediately felt saddened. He thought for a few moments and then typed in : " YES".

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