Brainwashing 101 By Himanshu Goel “If a singer stops singing will he still be a singer?” He asked Shania from across the table. “No” the table was white, cold, impersonal. “If a singer is forced to stop singing will he still be one?” the room was the blandest of grey, the kind in which you can’t even pass your time by staring at the walls. “Subject 48, Will he be?” they brought her here every day, she had forgotten how many days it had been since the first time, and maybe this is how it starts. “Yes”. “Why?” his tone was dead, not even a hint of variation. “Because he was forced, how is this relevant anyway?” “We need you to co-operate, this is important to prepare you for feeding. Remember, it was you who signed up for it.” “Now, please try to concentrate. If a singer forces himself to stop, will he still be one?”
“I don’t know.” “Good, you are learning faster than the others.” “Wilson, escort subject 48 to her room.” Wilson, a bald man in black from head to toe picked her up, she had never been able to make out the face of her interrogators because they always stayed in the shadows. Today they took from her the concept of singing, she could still remember music, at least she hoped she did. He took her through the series of corridors and rooms, all painted in the same bland grey colour. They began with the concept of escape, then love, all the basic emotions, one by one taking them out till the time comes when she will be ready to be fed. She had committed a terrible crime, it was either a death sentence or enrol in the experimental government program for prisoners. Room 48, her room, it had the bare necessities. Bed, food, storage, sanitation. The experimental program was called brain recalibration 10.1. The prisoners were interrogated by expert psychiatrists under the influence H2I2 drug. She was committed for murder, the last concept that’ll be taken away from her, then her brain will be recalibrated by the psychiatrists for something ‘productive’ for the society. She was still dizzy from the drug injected in her blood streams, with the help of Wilson she set herself down on the bed. Another 48 days of interrogation then she won’t be a murderer anymore, but what she’ll become she didn’t know. Maybe, she thought. I should have taken that death sentence. *****