Munmun still remembers that rainy day, when government officials first came announcing the distribution of Humanoids. She was preparing a lunch for herself and others who were planting paddies in the field, when her father, Rajendra came running towards home.
“I was going to bring the lunch to the fields,” said Munmum, “are you hungry already?”
“No no! You serve them lunch, I will be back soon. They are distributing those machines,” Rajendra seemed overly excited about this even though, just before, he was in the middle of planting paddies.
Munmun was evermore curiously waiting for this day after her father had explained to her few days ago that the party in the current government had a slogan, something like: ‘One Family One Humanoid’ and they were fulfilling the promise made before elections.
After that, she even followed talks about it on the radio that had been going on for months, surrounding the impact Humanoids could have on a country with the most population below the poverty line.
Munmun, 8 at that time, was barely understood much of it or the consequences of things happening around her that would change her life along many others’ forever. At that moment, she was only curious about having a new member, as it was advertised in the party ‘propaganda’; that these Humanoids are going to be part of the family. That these Humanoids are not exactly humans though they have flesh and bones to resemble human-like features covering the complicated circuit where data flows like blood.
Her mother however never cared at all, she thought that having something with all these modern circuits and information is not going to solve their problems. She complained that she did not even vote for this party or anyone and why should she be obliged to take something she never asked for and be thankful for it? She became more furious that the distribution day was on the same day they were planting paddies.
It feels unreal to her now, to think that there was no one opposing this project back then, considering how much death and destruction it has brought since. Although she has a vague memory of some of her school teachers talking about the fact that these Humanoids were part of an experimentation project by an international private business tech organization called FLOWER TECH Corp, based in a country known for its war crimes. But no one cared about war in some far land as long as they were getting something as advanced as Humanoids. Also there was no one to provide a valid connection between this private business tech organization and wars and killings going around the world.
“I guess people want to see something exciting and I am glad we are the ones providing it for them” Munmun listened to the Prime Minister talk about the Humanoids project to the media.
Munmun, already finished serving lunch, was now coloring her book when Rajendra reached home with the Humanoid. It was the first time she saw Maasum which she named it to resemble her brother’s name Mausam who left home 4 years ago in search of work and had been contactless since then. Her parents already assumed he might be dead. She used to feel alone after he left, but seeing Maasum delighted her. It was the new member of her family. Rajendra explained to her the instructions and told her about the Bread that needs to be supplied daily to Humanoids.
For her, it will always feel like yesterday, though 15 years have passed already. Things are no longer the same. She herself has been in the battle of survival; running or hiding is now the only option for her and Maasum. It has been long since she slept peacefully without being worried about the next thing that will attack her and take away Maasum. But now she is exhausted even to worry about anything.
It is twilight and she along with Maasum have reached outside of the Robot barracks. This is supposedly one of the few barracks that now exist of what once was a large number of Robot militants fighting against the Combined Force of Humans (CF) and Hoomanots. But it was always impossible to take on the advanced weaponry of Hoomanots and the mind of elite Humans behind it. Munmun has been running from the CF for almost 6 – 7 years now. She once was captured for not submitting Maasum to the CF fighting with militants. However she was able to escape when the ‘democratic state’ fell and chaos took over. Now there is no state, the CF claims itself to be the controlling the resources and information that reaches to the general masses (or what’s left of them).
Maasum was looking around and suddenly got excited. It took the soil beneath, scanned it.
“We are Home”, signaled Maasum.
Maasum was unable to produce sounds which it lost during its failed upgrade 7 years ago, around the same time when they were able to escape from their cells. It really would have been impossible to break out if not for the falling of the ‘Democratic Government’ and there was chaos as the Human Elite Class and Military took over the state. Though Hoomanots at that time were not so deadly even though they were already controlled by Military and Human Elites but Government was so stuck with its own self indulging politics that they failed to make policies regarding full engagements of Hoomanots in fighting the Rebels or at least the Combined Force tells it so.
Munmun looks at it suspiciously, and she looks around. There is some kind of familiarity though all she can see around is a vast wasteland. Destroyed Machines of Humanoids, dried corpses of men,women, and children. Plants like standing ashes. The air smelling like mixture of burning industrial waste and rotting human flesh.
Munmun, still confused, is unable to figure it out until Maasum signalled again. She was back to the place from where she ran 8 years ago. Her home, the place where it all began for her, even though there was nothing recognizable left. Everything is deeply buried under these wastes and corpses. She can still feel the scream of her father burning in the flames. This is the place which once was a dream and now a nightmare. Night after night she is haunted by those memories, the visuals of flames in the dark of night, and her mother crying and running. It is still vivid, still so clear that those images no longer feel like flashes from her past, but rather a live experience that she keeps living every moment of her life.
Maasum looks at her, she is already feeling sick from inside. She can’t help herself when all of her worst memories come to her like a heavy flood even when she is exhausted. She doesn’t even remember when she was happy the last time; even if she could remember she is always so tired and in the verge of breaking down that she cannot think sraight. She stares at Maasum blankly as if seeing through it to a void filled with the sound of helpless screams and desperate anguish of her home.
Maasum, creates holographic reality of a memory more than a decade ago. Munmun seems surprised.
“You can do that?” asks Munmun.
Maasum nods.
It is the season of festivals all around, Munmun can now recall this memory. Munmun seemed happy, as she was telling Maasum that now she can also have Dashain’s story to share with the class.
“Your language is getting better” Rajendra complimented her when he overheard Munmun talking to Maasum.
“Yes, Maasum is helping me a lot,” said Munmun, smiling with joy.
“You are already great at Mathematics and Science, now with language you can be the brightest student in school”, her mother Januka also joined in.
Maasum has been with the family for just over a year now and Januka, though still suspicious of the machines and hurt of not knowing her son’s whereabouts, is trying to accept this newly added member of her family.
“But don’t forget our language, you communicate with me only in Swihari” Januka asks her boldly.
Munmun says something to Maasum in Swihari, and Maasum nods.
“See! Maasum is also learning Swihari.” The joy in Munmun’s face radiates even making Januka smile and proud of her.
“Does it know what Munmun means?”
Munmun looks at Maasum. Maasum goes outside, picks up soil and shows it to Januka. Januka and Rajendra both smile.
“Not just any soil, but fertile soil where paddies bloom like they want to touch the sky and beyond”, says Rajendra.
Munmun now realizes why her mother was so reluctant in the participation of Dashain. For her it was not just any celebration. They didn’t celebrate this particular festival, though most of the country was invested in it and has been celebrating it for hundreds of years. But Munmun, her family and their community of farmers and fisherfolks called Swihar- which were now few in terms of numbers, nonetheless celebrated their own festivals a month after harvest with the start of winter when both soil and river water are resting to rejuvenate for next season. They have been celebrating this with carnivals and events of singing and dancing and a lot of food for almost thousands of years, since the beginning of civilization as they say. Things were getting difficult for the past few years. Paddies were not growing like previous yeats, water resources were drying up, and to add to the misery, people were migrating in search of opportunities leaving their homeland to suffer.
***
“It gets dark early,” Munmun tells Maasum.
“The whole country is a vast wasteland.”
“Do you think ‘Mai’ is still alive?” Maasum asks hesitantly. Munmun remains silent as in some deep thought or a haunting memory.
Most of the humans who ran away took refuge underground during the initial days of this disaster also known as “New Age War”. Those who went underground might as well be already dead, though Munmun doesn’t want to believe it. She has her hopes of her mother being alive out there somewhere.
“Don’t worry once I get the bread, we will go to search for Mai. CF can’t get us here” Maasum wanted to console Munmun.
“I don’t even know what hope feels like anymore.” She had endured way too much to keep all this rage and grief and trauma inside her, all of it battling to burst out- ripping her body apart through her bones and dripping through her skin; at the end it only freezes her, making her numb and paralyzed; unable to think or feel or do anything beyond responding to the current threat just enough to survive for the next moment.
All of these feelings sometimes are unprocessable for Maasum let alone to reciprocate, still it tries to keep up with her not to let her fall apart holding her literally and reminding her of moments they used to cherish.
“Do you remember one time Mai was unable to repair her tape recorder, and you fixed it in an instant”, Munmun says to cheer up Maasum.
“Yes, Mai used to dislike me so much, but then that day she praised me with joy”
They both chuckle bluntly, “only if I knew how to help Baba”
They both go silent. Munmun wants to cry but cannot.
Maasum is checking the signal configuration of the boundary line outside the Barracks.
“This one is different’’, Maasun signals to Munmun.
“How so?”
Maasum tells her that it’s not the usual technology how those CF versions are updated.
“I can do it, if the fundamental circuit is still version 4”.
As far as Munmun knows, they have updated upto 10 versions in the last 15 years, until they started mass producing Hoomanots. It was after the 4th update tensions got to peak and the humanoids started separating into what now would become hoomanots and robots. Maasum was on run with Munmun so it never got a chance to get updated after Version 4. It has not been easy, especially keeping Maasum functioning- with all those upgrades by the CFs. Bread for Maasum was very difficult to get, the system growing even more hostile. The Bread basically, used to feed the data and information to humanoid circuits to function which kept changing with each upgrade. So the breads for previous versions were useless and waste and they were no longer produced. The CF already had Version 10 of Hoomanots; it was almost impossible to find Bread for Maasum. But survival is as much as adapting as it is fighting. Humans can adapt but not Humanoids, they were just circuits and wires coded with vast sets of digital information and ways to process it, Breads were something that kept them functioning. Munmun however found a way scavenging through the wastes to find Bread and machines that can produce it. It was something that could help them for months but it was not durable either. She even tried to find loops in the system, CFs were in power but the Bureaucrats acted as middleman when it came to distributing resources. It was always difficult to find such Bureaucrats who could still have those machines that produced Version 4 Bread, and then to steal from them. Difficult but not impossible, Munmun would go lengths to protect Maasum and keep it functioning.
As soon as Maasum breaks the pattern, they both get in. Immediately two robots appear and they are captured.
“Welcome to the last remaining rebel barrack. Are you a tourist here for a site visit or are you a spy?” A bulky robot with a deep voice said in a mocking tone. They were different. There was no flesh to appear like humans rather the after covering were more metallic. Munmun could not say anything .This was the first time they had encountered robots and she felt there was no way they are going to get away this time.
“It wasn’t easy to track you two but then our technology is also entirely different. We don’t have versions anymore, no upgrades, no superiority. Our technology is even more advanced with better developed codes and configurations based on skills required to sustain a social lifestyle consisting of both humans and robots.”
The bulky robot who seems to be in charge now sits down and starts asking.
“We thought it was better to let you in after all you haven’t seen how robots are like, maybe you have heard how cruel and inhumane we are through constant propagandas. Robots cannot be humans, but the humanity for us is to resist, against all this oppression, to fight against this system that treats you like some kind of experiment. We, not just robots but most of the humans who are already marginalized and oppressed, also pushed towards extinction to fight to destroy this existing system which keeps betraying the very citizens it is supposed to protect, and to rebuild a better society one that is governed by community of workers and peasants and artists and intellectuals not by some war mongering business headed sociopaths.”
At first Munmun was trying to make sense of it all. She was unable to reciprocate the anger of and motive of Robot chief. She had never put so much thought into it.
***
It was after 2 upgrades when they said Hoomanots can now also help in agriculture farming and other factories. Rajendra had hopes, agriculture was already getting difficult with climate change, absurd economic policies and also difficult to get peasants for farming as everyone was in hurry to leave rural life in search of better life. So he thought what could be wrong if Maasum can help even though the upgrade was very expensive and the bread was something Rajendra could not afford normally. It was already a growing issue of people not being able to afford the Bread for Humanoids. Sometimes it was escalating to the point that some Humanoids were starting to behave erratically and violently, but the blame was always on the poor folks and peasants for not providing Humanoids their necessities. So, some of the folks had no choice but to abandon the Humanoids.
But to his disappointment the only help that Maasum did was to suggest what kind of paddy Rajendra should plant, at how much distance, how much pesticide to use etc. This was not what Rajendra thought of by help.
The old rumors were circulating again. About Humanoids being part of an experiment by FLOWER TECH Corp. who wanted to create the most advanced version to use as a war weapon. The government kept denying the rumor and kept pushing the narrative of science and development. This time it was with some valid points as Munmun was listening on the radio about it and also some of the humanoids themselves were trying to expose the government on this.
The farming was again a disaster, Rajendra was already in turmoil as there was nothing left to eat. Everyone in his community and also other working population were fleeing or hiding as the government kept pressuring them for upgrades. It was during that time some of the abandoned Humanoids already broke out from the system and started calling themselves Robots. Munmun could understand a few things happening but still was unable to understand the gravity of the situation or its consequences. Maasum was not upgraded beyond version 4, Rajendra couldn’t afford it. It surely would have been a flaw of FLOWER TECH that Humanoids were somehow loyal and friendly to their family rather than submitting or falling into the hands of the system that manufactured them when it was time of chaos. Maasum more so because Munmun has treated it just like her brother with even more care that they were attached like a family bond.
Maasum used to update her on everything going around, the Humanoids being abandoned more often forming a Rebel group called Robot Rebel Militia (RRM) and on the other side the government forcing everyone to submit their Humanoids for upgrade and to fight with RRM. Her mother was worried for Rajendra, who was so disturbed that his behavior was almost unrecognizable. Most of the fellow humans fled and hid underground as the rumors of war kept brewing more.
Everything seemed to be falling apart already, then that night of horror came. Munmun was sleeping when she heard a loud scream, she woke up thinking it was a nightmare. But there was a bright light coming through her window, it was on fire. She went outside, she recognized her mother running screaming, another scream came, a familiar sound coming in from the flames. The flames grew larger, and there were four flames burning and screaming at the same time. Januka got lost in the dark, only her faint cries could be heard.
“Baba!” Munmun screamed with shock but the sound was lost in the air.
Maasum was there, it came and tried to hold her not to make her see. She kept struggling to run towards them until she fell unconscious. Almost three days later she gained consciousness. Her Mother was there all the time. Rajendra along with 3 other Swihari Men had set themselves on fire.
“We are leaving tomorrow with a group going underground. War has already been declared” Januka told Munmun that night.
She looked at Maasum.
“They won’t allow Humanoids with us” said Januka softly, “Government says those who haven’t submitted their Humanoids are criminals”
“I won’t leave Maasum here alone.”
“I understand you but there is no other choice.”
Munmun pauses and thinks for a while.
“You go, I will take Maasum somewhere safe and come to you.”
Januka disagreed. She was adamant, she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her another child. Munmun felt there was no point in arguing. So, she left her mother and ran away with Maasum. Since then she has been on the run, captured once but escaped.
***
“What about you and Hoomanots in that society?” Asked Munmun without much effort.
“We want to self-destruct. But we need your help.”
“For what?”
“They have something which keeps producing Hoomanots at massive scale, they use some of them to destroy us, most of them are sent for another war outside. We need to destroy that first. You have been inside that facility. We can use your humanoid to lure them in here and let it get captured. We will bug it obviously and follow it.”
Munmun is denying it’s too dangerous a risk to Maasum for something she is not even sure is there. She doesn’t approve of it. All tired and exhausted, she can’t keep up with the chief to argue but Robots have already done it. They have alarmed the CF system with the presence of an old Humanoid. Munmun had not much choice.
“We were able to make contact with your mother. We will take you there once this is over. But for now you don’t have much choice and neither do we. This establishment of CF should be destroyed if not by us then by you but this can’t go on. They call this a war but for us this is a revolutionary struggle.”
The barrack was emptied soon after the army of CF arrived. Robots and Munmun were hiding outside with just Maasum inside.
The CF had grown ever more powerful with even stronger Hoomanots. Their design had changed, they resembled more like Humans but there was something very mechanical and submissive in the way they were walking alongside fellow CF Soldiers who were Humans. Munmun realizes what those upgrades and change of circuit configuration is all about.
“From the very beginning the idea of this Humanoid project was to make a perfect weapon which can also be the soldier in front allowing human elites to sit in their comfortable zones and conduct war without worrying about the loss of life of their human soldiers. The weaponry and the scale in which it could be implemented for mass destruction was unimaginable.” The Robot chief saw Munmun change her expression when she saw those CF Soldiers and tried to explain.
“No wonder they are supplying these Hoomanots to occupy people and their lands in foreign countries also, turning those places too into a War Zone,” a Robot whispers to Munmun.
The CF goes inside. Maasum is inside as if it is waiting for them to come and capture.
But instead they shoot at Maasum as soon as they see it. They keep firing their weapons until Maasum is completely destroyed. There is total silence.
Her whole body feels like screaming but the sound is already dead inside before it comes out of her larynx. Her lungs feel flat. Her body starts to tremble, everything she was holding onto collapsed right in front of her in the blink of an eye. She can only stand there helpless, with disbelief at what just happened. Even with all these struggles and hardships she never thought of letting go of Maasum or even submitting it to the CFs. It was the only thing that kept reminding her that she is alive and there still is a moment left for her to share that she can cherish, that can make her happy and something that connected her to life. She preserved herself through Maasum sometimes. It’s all gone. Tears roll down silently through her pale face as she keeps looking in the direction where Maasum was destroyed.
She is enraged with wide open eyes lighting fire, then in a moment it’s all dark. Her senses stop to feel. She starts to run towards Maasum violently, the CF soldiers see her. Feeling exposed, the chief of robots decides to attack on the CF. Soon it was all over, the CF soldiers were all destroyed.
Munmun went towards Maasum. Its body was wide open, circuits scattered all over. She knelt down on her knees trying to pick up the parts and circuits to assemble desperately. All the moments lived together flashed before her eyes in an instant. Moments when she actually started believing Maasum was her real brother, moments when Maasum helped her to learn use weapons while they were on the run. Everything they had been through, everything she was feeling now and everything she will feel, a trauma, a story of survival.
“Help me chief, we can still…” a deeply suppressed agonizing voice comes through her.
“It’s not safe here anymore, we should move” Chief tells in broken voice trying to console her patting on the shoulders.
Munmun looks at him with red violent eyes.
“We should go chief, the enemies could already be on their way,” someone says aloud.
The chief walks away from Munmun.
“We should at least bury…,” she speaks with an aching voice filled with thick grief.
“This whole country is our graveyard, it is already buried,” said a deep painful voice from a distance.
They all collected Maasum’s parts and buried them within the soil. Munmun can’t help thinking about her father also.
“What now?” One of the Robot Militants asked.
The Robot chief gives a hopeless look towards the Militant.
“Like you said, humanity is revolting against oppression. We will march to the CF headquarters,” said Munmun with an impulsive rage, she holds her breath not to choke. “I know where the facility is. We will find it and we will destroy everything and everyone that protects it. Humans and robots underground. Call everyone…. We revolt as long as we grieve.”
