The Story of a Chip
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The Story of a Chip
Rama Rao and Sangameshwar have been friends since their school days. Rama Rao graduated in civil engineering, while Sangameshwar earned his degree in arts. Rama Rao was looking after his father’s real estate business while Sangmeshwar was looking for a job and he met Rama Rao.
Rama Rao asked him to join his company to deal with the prospective clients. Sangameshwar accepted and joined Rama Rao’s company.
Sangmeshwar’s work was getting municipal/ panchayat permissions, developing plots in existing lands, fixing plot boundaries, laying internal roads, developing greenery along the internal streets, and planting commercial-value trees along the borders of the plots to attract clients. He was also responsible for arranging for marketing personnel to sell the plots, showing them the plots, and convincing them to buy.
The visits to the plots will be preferably on Sundays. Rama Rao and Sangameshwar will visit the site on Sunday as several clients will visit. The marketing personnel will arrange for vehicles to pick up and drop off the clients.
On that day, a tent will be erected on the site with chairs and one or two tables for sitting and discussing the plots, selection, cost, payment terms, etc. Sangameshwar would make arrangements for tea and snacks for the clients. The agreed party will meet Rama Rao for a final bargain in the cost and payment terms. Interested clients will make the initial payment to keep the plot in his name, and Sangameshwar will collect and issue the receipt as a company representative. Rama Rao would then sign the agreement papers in the city office.
Rama Rao had a posh office in the city centre, accessible from all parts of the city. He would advertise the plots, their location, and the facilities at the site on the television daily and on weekends in newspapers, and distribute pamphlets in locations where job holders’ offices and residential apartments are in the city. This distribution will be on the mornings or weekends when people come out to purchase vegetables or groceries and have time to go through the pamphlet. Two or three young persons will distribute the brochures in one place.
Rama Rao and Sangameshwar will discuss the fixing of the price of plots based on the cost of the land, the development of roads, plantation of trees, water supply and drainage facilities, office charges, security at the site, transport to clients to the site and arrangements at the site, marketing agents, cost of advertisements and their profit. They will also fix prices for normal and hikes for east-facing, northeast corner, and other corner plots. The clients and the plots’ commercial use will follow the pricing as per Vaastu.
Rama Rao has appointed agents who select sites around the city outskirts covering at least ten acres of open land for future real estate business. His agents check the official records and get the encumbrance certificate. He has an expert team to decide the site’s suitability for commercial plotting. If the site is found suitable, he visits and discusses it with the owner or owners and settles the deal.
Once the landowner agrees on the final amount, one of the team members meets with the government officials to arrange an approach road from the main road to the land, and after that, Sangameshwar takes over the rest of the arrangements.
With all these works, Sangameshwar was accessible to the clients, who consider him the main person in Rama Rao’s company.
Whenever Sangameshwar and Rama Rao visited the site, Rama Rao would drive, or they sometimes alternate. One day, when Rama Rao was driving, a truck came from the wrong side, and it was a head-on collision, hitting both the drivers’ sides. Rama Rao got hit on the ribs and head and fell unconscious. The car’s front right side got damaged. Sangameshwar came out from the left door and tried to open the right one but could not. People passing on the road helped break the door lock and took Rama Rao out.
Sangameshwar called the ambulance and shifted Rama Rao to a nearby hospital. After first aid, the hospital doctors asked Sangameshwar to shift Rama Rao to the city’s speciality hospital for his head and other injuries in an ambulance as quickly as possible. Sangameshwar shifted Rama Rao to his friend’s hospital in the town. At the City Hospital, the doctors advised that Rama Rao’s ribs and hip joints were fractured, and his head injury required surgical treatment.
By this time, Rama Rao’s wife, Srujana, had been informed and had come to the hospital. After the formalities before the operation, the doctors conducted successful surgical operations. After shaving the head, they did the surgery. The head injury was not fatal. The doctors put him in the ICU for weekdays and kept him for observation for another week in a special room in the male ward. The hospital discharged Rama Rao with suggested daily use of medicines and physiotherapy with advice for bed rest for about three months. Srujana took care of him at home. Sangameshwar is carrying out all the site and plot work on behalf of Rama Rao.
Rama Rao signs all cheques that Sangameshwar brings without hesitation. Most of them are in Sangameshwar’s name. Though Srujana had doubts about paying Sangameshwar instead of the landowners, whenever she raised her doubts about Sangameshwar, Rama Rao asked her not to have doubts about him. Rama Rao always supported him and did whatever Sangameshwar asked him to do.
Before the accident, Srujana observed that Rama Rao’s thinking was different. He was careful about issuing cheques to people, not through Sangameshwar but directly to the land owners who used to come to him at the office or home to collect the cheques and give a receipt.
With Rama Rao’s illness, Srujana became interested in office matters and worried about the procedure change. Rama Rao never asked for receipts from Sangameshwar after disbursement. He followed Sangameshwar’s suggestions.
These things made Srujana think. Srujana was a science graduate with computer science as an elective subject. She later studied artificial intelligence (AI) at a coaching institute before marriage but was not interested in doing a job, but she followed the developments in AI through newspapers and her professional body membership journals. She stayed up-to-date with the latest AI technology.
Srujana has travelled long distances with Rama Rao several times to weddings and other friends’ functions. She knew his driving. Rama Rao is a careful driver who checked tyre pressures and diesel before long journeys. His eyesight was clear. He never made a single mistake on the road when she was by his side all these years.
Srujana doubted the accident. She got the CCTV footage of the accident spot. Rama Rao was an expert driver and he would have easily avoided hitting the truck if he had manoeuvred the car to the left. She was surprised when the truck was going on its side. Rama Rao’s car took to the right and hit the truck. She wanted to know how this happened. She took the vehicle to the garage to have all the parts on the dashboard checked.
Srujana sought the advice of a psychologist and took Rama Rao to a well-known doctor. After the examination, the doctor advised scanning the head. They found a metal piece in the head. The doctors were surprised and suggested immediate head surgery. Surprisingly, the doctors found a chip in the head. The doctors removed the chip and sent it to the laboratory for testing.
The laboratory found that the chip was under the control of Sangameshwar who transferred his instructions to Rama Rao’s mind through his mobile, and, accordingly, Rama Rao functioned.
The vehicle mechanic found a chip on the steering wheel. They examined it in the laboratory and found that the chip had instructions from Sangameshwar’s mobile. The last instruction was to “Turn right and hit the truck on its right.” So, the car took a right turn instead of Rama Rao trying to take it to the left side.
They informed and handed the chips to the cyber security police, who verified and arrested Sangameshwar. Sangameshwar accepted his mistake of inserting chips. He said, “I deserve punishment for cheating my friend Rama Rao.” They recovered all the money from Sangameshwar.
Srujana was happy that Rama Rao became normal after three months of rest. Rama Rao started to look after the company’s affairs. Rama Rao felt sorry for believing his friend Sangameshwar.
Rama Rao hugged his wife, Srujana. She caressed his clean-shaven head, and he rested his head on her shoulder. Rama Rao complimented Srujana for doubting the incidents and tracing the culprit. Her doubting saved Rama Rao’s life and his company. After that, Rama Rao asked Srujana to accompany him daily to look after the office affairs.
( With the latest technology developments, there is a rise in their misuse for crimes. This story is only an imagination of future happenings.)
PRABHAKAR M.