Mom's the word

15th April 2018

"Why isn't this stupid robot working?" Ben Tudor screamed. An unprecedented adrenaline rush made its way through Ben's veins and arteries. Natalia, his teammate, said firmly, "Calm down Ben, Let's debug". Fastidiously they looked for faults in the circuit. They had less than thirty seconds. "The gas detecting sensor is not receiving power. See the red LED light is turned on.", pointed out Natalie as both desperately tried to unearth the cause of malfunction in their robot. "Oh! no, the sub-wire is disconnected", Ben was dejected. They cannot afford such errors at this crucial time. Natalia spontaneously connected the wire and the green LED light near the gas detecting sensor got turned on. Within 10 seconds the robot started to function. After one hour there was this announcement "The winner of this year's robotics competition is Nathalia Josef and Ben Tudor." The winners started screaming and jumping, their hearts thumping. It was late evening when Ben returned home. He took the trophy to the balcony, looked up at the sky. The sky was clear, with about 4 nights left for the full moon, slightly windy which occasionally brought the long hair of Ben on his eyes. "Mom this is for you" He pointed the trophy at the sky -eyes fixed at a particular star, tears rolling.

Ben was six years old when he lost his mother. His dad pointed at a star and told him that his mother became that star to console his grieving child. Ben has very little memory of his mother. The days Ben missed his mother, felt lonely or depressed, he had the habit of talking and sharing his thoughts with his mother. A patient listener and a passive communicator that his mother was, always responded in continuous blinks. Ben was a technology freak and had a passion for robotics. He took robotics engineering as his major. This was his final year. He earned notable laurels during his studies including winning the prestigious robotics competition. He knew robotics-based startups were his true calling. His classmate Albert and he brainstormed several projects. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that a warehouse-based robotics project was the most promising. After graduation, they decided to work on the project. However, the market got disrupted by the recession and they did not find a sponsor. Albert came up with the proposal of investing their savings to build the prototype. They calculated that they would end up investing most of their savings. They had a lot to ponder upon, a lot was at stake.

Ben was in a casual relationship with Elizabeth (Liz) Bosmo. Liz incidentally was Albert's sister. He felt that attraction towards Liz was dwindling and was thinking of breaking up with her. It was in that phase, Liz proposed to him for marriage. Ben did want to sound sexist but "proposing marriage is a man's job". Ben backtracked from his decision of breaking up. Instead, he asked for some time from her. If he broke up with Liz, how could he work with Albert? Ben and Albert together developed the idea. Ethically Ben could not start the project without Albert. Neither he had the capital to undertake the project alone. Liz was otherwise a nice lady, but Ben felt that her personal magnetism subsided over the last few months.

Life-changing decisions needed to be made. Ben had approximately one week. He was vacillating. Should he gamble with his family's savings, marital life, and friendship? At the same time, he was allured to the project and knew very well that he could not show the same amount of devotion to any other job. He was enthusiastic about robotics and entrepreneurship. What he learned from his entrepreneurship course is that success is not guaranteed and to succeed it is of utmost importance to take risks. He felt like a robot with too many threads running parallel in the motherboard and the system was going to crash. He was having sleepless nights with the contemplation and rumination which left him fatigued.

5th July 2019,

Ben woke up in the middle of the night. 12:45 AM. He saw it on his cell phone. 'Miss you, Benny' he saw a new text message from Liz, forty minutes after they exchanged 'good night'. The text did not have any effect on Ben. He struggled to get back to sleep. For half an hour he tossed and turned restlessly on the twin-sized, medium-firm, foam mattress followed by fifteen minutes of deep breathing. When none of the tricks availed, he left the bed and went to the balcony. He looked up. He was so disappointed to find the sky cloudy. He could not see the star. The much-needed consultation with his mother did not come to fruition. He, with a despondent face, prepared to head towards his bedroom. As he turned, he received a sudden blow. A barn owl flew very near him. There was no sound. The barn owl did not make any sound during the flight due to its soft fringe-edged feathers which muffled the noise as it moved.

The next night, Ben's sleep again got disrupted almost at the same time as the previous night. Another cloudy sky of dismay welcomed him on the balcony. The weather was slightly windy. He saw one barn owl devouring a huge rat which was almost of the same size as itself under his balcony. He did not know if it was the same owl as one he saw on the previous night. He was petrified. A chilly blow of wind struck him. He felt a sensation of cold accompanied by shivering. He remembered that the owl symbolism is linked to death, ruin, and destruction in the Middle East and Native American culture. In Egypt, also they were associated with darkness and misfortune. Chagrined and terror-stricken Ben could not sleep at all after that.

Three days later, Ben went out for some work. He was still dithering on the same issues. He was stuck in traffic, and he started to reckon the possibilities. This was the first time that he did not want the light to go green as that would give him more time to enumerate. The same thoughts kept on bombarding him. That day he intentionally returned home late. After taking dinner insipidly, he went to bed. He was having trouble sleeping which had become a routine of the week. He went out to the balcony in his faded nightgown. He stared at the sky with his worn-out and yearning eyes. In a sedated tone his inner voice spoke, "Mom, I need your help. I am not able to decide. I am having nightmares. Please, mom, help." The inner voice gradually lost its repose and became increasingly jittery and apprehensive and water droplets started gathering in his eyes. What happened next- he could not believe his eyes. The blue-white star seemed to turn greenish. His mom's eye had a light greenish shade. He burst into tears. Everything became perspicuous, he felt so disencumbered.

After waking up the first thing that he did in the morning was make a call to Albert and by the afternoon he signed the deal. He got married to Liz later that month. How could he ignore the divine green signal from his mother?

August 2020,

It has been one year since they launched the new venture. The progress has been languorous given the challenges imposed by the recession, but it shows huge potential. His wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Bosmo Tudor, is expecting their first child.