The Guide

By Dr. Pratik Pravin Bhat

I was doing my MTech in

Artificial Intelligence

At a reputable university.

We had projects,

A guide was assigned.

My guide was tall,

Dark, and handsome.

Whenever I sat,

I couldn’t think of the work at hand.

I just kept looking,

Staring blankly at him,

Into an eternal abyss

I wandered into,

Until he would

Snap his fingers

Against each other

To snap me out

Of my lustful day-dreaming.

One fine day,

When I went to meet him,

I saw his door

Left ajar.

I called out his name;

He wasn’t there,

I presumed.

I wanted to enter,

Feeling so curious

That I might catch him doing something

Illegal.

I went inside.

There was an internal room

Which I had never really noticed.

I explored even further,

And I saw what I didn’t want to:

My dark, handsome hunk

On the floor,

Naked.

There were half-smoked joints

On the floor,

And empty alcohol bottles.

Then I saw

An abomination.

I knew he worked on robots,

But what I saw on a makeshift bed

Was me.

I saw myself.

The artificial creation

Looked so real.

It was just there,

Inanimate,

Lying on the bed,

Inactivated.

Then I felt

Something pierces through me:

A syringe.

I looked behind

To see that it was

My guide.

He then came behind,

Cupped my breasts.

I grew numb,

Unable to resist his hold,

As he whispered,

“Artificial Intelligence can’t replace you!”

Then I realized

He would send the machine

Out to take my place

In the real world.

He would fulfil his lewd desires

With the real thing:

Me!

I called out for help,

But my eyes were blurry,

I couldn’t see straight.

I was

Non-functional.

I fainted.

By Dr. Pratik Pravin Bhat