It was the most coveted event of the school : Science exhibition 2020. Students, from all over the state, mushroomed the entire park displaying projects of vivid colors. Some students were anxious, some were serious while some were with a smiley face. But what's common in everyone was the urge to explain their project to the chief guest who was about to arrive around 10 AM.
Usually it's a norm to welcome the guest with garland of flowers & huge applause, but that day it didn't happen. The chief guest was late. Around 11.30 AM the guest, Mr. Das, a senior researcher from CSIR, arrived on a car & came straight to visit the stalls avoiding the formal welcoming gesture from school authorities. There were 30 stalls circled along the periphery of the park & Mr. Das along with few teachers wasted no time in starting the journey from one end.
Mr. Das being an observant & decisive researcher quickly transitioned from one stall to another. He would ask what the project is about, afford few minutes to explain it, ask few questions if the project is intriguing enough & quickly move to the next one. It was not untill stall 12 arrived & he saw a boy with a pale face. "Hey, What's your project is about ?" Mr. Das asked with a soft tone. The boy uttered 1 or 2 sentences & started shaking. Mr. Das sensed something went wrong with this boy & asked him his name.
"Shaan" said the boy.
"Have you not prepared well, Shaan ?" asked Mr. Das.
"No Sir"
"Why, what's the problem ?"
The boy stayed silent & started shaking again.
Mr. Das was moved & decided to extend a warm request to accompany him while visiting the remaining stalls. The boy hesitated at first & finally said "yes" when the teachers tried to insist him.
They visited 3 more stalls before the lunch bell started ringing at 1.30 PM. All those students left their stalls to join the row for lunch. When Shaan sought permission to leave, Mr. Das requested Shaan to join him in lunch in a cozy office space. Shaan couldn't refuse. It was a fancy lunch starting from rice to biriyani, from paneer to chicken tanduri & a varieties of desserts all filled with colour & fragrance. Mr. Das was hungry & ate a lot. But the boy was not touching the food; not even the ice cream.
Once Mr. Das completed his lunch he offered the boy few ice creams which he ultimately ate. Before they leave the office room Mr. Das took a while to ask him what exactly happened to him. "My mother died a week ago" Shaan said. Being shocked Mr. Das didn't say anything & hugged him right away. The boy cried there. When the break was over Mr. Das asked "would you like to present your project now or you would like to join me ?". "I would like to join you sir" Shaan said.
Then both of them started navigating from stall 16. There was a project on nuclear technology in stall 18. Mr. Das was impressed. Next few projects were not very innovative. As he proceeded stead fast along the stalls he stopped near stall no. 24. It was a project driven by AI to identify position of terrorists near the border line. Besides it can be used to detect areas where ammunitions are manufactured so that they can be destroyed through military interference. Being a CSIR researcher he was also working on such a project & it impressed him compared to all the other projects.
It was around 4 PM when all the projects were over & a huge stage was already prepared to host the prize ceremony. All the teachers along with Mr. Das arrived on the stage. Students were so excited about the result that they had no patience to listen an introductory speech from the head master of the school. After a while it was upto Mr. Das to pick the 3 winners.
No. 3 was a boy named Prakash who made a project on intelligent robot design. No. 2 was the boy named Parthiv from stall no 18 whose project was based on nuclear technology. It was time to decide the no 1 spot. Students were running out of patience. Cheers were sky high from the crowds. It was Roshni, a girl from stall no. 24 whose project was based AI to detect terrorist activity. Her face was full of joy. The atmosphere filled with whistle & applauds.
As Mr. Das noticed everyone was happy except Shaan. It was very obvious that he was unhappy. But now he seemed more disturbed than ever. "May be it was because he couldn't present his project successfully" he thought. So he picked the microphone & asked Shaan "Would you like to come over the stage & say a few words ?". He thought it might cheer him a little. "Would you allow me to tell a little story sir ?" Shaan asked. Mr. Das, in a surprised voice, said "Why not...Please come".
He slowly stepped over the stage, took the mic from Mr. Das, turned towards the audience & said "A month ago when I was in school I conceived an idea to make a project. It was based on AI & can be used to detect plastic & other non-biodegradable pollutants in sea water. Everything was going well in my life untill a week ago when I found my mother hanging dead in the bathroom. My whole world turned upside down. I had no idea why she did that. Even police couldn't help find the cause untill an ex-CBI officer, who resigned recently, found that one guy from CBI had all the details about my mother. And he was using those details to blackmail her. When this continued my mother tried her best to find legal support. But nothing worked for her & she took the path of suicide." Mr. Das picked his smartphone from his pocket & googled about the incident right away. "O god...That's right" he realized.
Shaan continued "when I asked the ex-CBI officer for more details he said CBI was illegally using some AI based technology, which was supposed to track terrorists, to perform mass surveillance. That's why he resigned from his job because it was unethical to breach someones' privacy. It was a soul awakening moment for me to hear that. I had only 7 days to prepare my project for the science exhibition. Then I decided to throw my project & wanted to pick a new one. I wanted it to be special in a way that it can be used by common people to prevent themselves from such cyber threats as my mother suffered. So I worked on creating an App called SAVIOUR. Mr. Das gave me a chance to show my project but I didn't because my App was a failure & I was ashamed of it".
Everyone was sad both on & off the stage. Mr. Das felt uneasy too. That's when Roshni came over the stage, took the mic from Shaan & said "Being the daughter of an engineer I have always dreamt to become eligible to get this award. But I never thought in what ways my creation can be used to harm people even to the extent that someone is forced to suicide. So if there is someone who is more eligible than me to get this award then he is Shaan. His project may not be a success but what he was trying to accomplish is far more inspiring than the success itself. Then she went straight to him & handed him the award."
The joy of the crowd had no limits. People were going crazy by what they just saw. Some were so happy that they couldn't stop their emotion. Applause everywhere. The eyes of Mr. Das were saying how he felt. The head master of the school came to the middle of the stage & named it "The golden science exhibition of this decade".
Can you guess the real event ?
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