A Short Discussion on Story Parivartan (The Change)

At Indiansciencefiction.groups.yahoo.com

Dr. Arvind Mishra
Friends,
Zeashan is my favourite sf writer who writes stories in Hindi.I just saw this story Parivartan (the change ! ) by him and thought you would also enjoy reading it ! But I am recommending this story with a purpose -to suggest an alternative end of the story as its drop scene was not somehow liked by me .I have suggested the author also to explore other poossible ends to the story and if possible rewrite it or write a sequel of it.
Would you be kind enough please to help the writer?
arvind

Cyril Gupta
Hello,

An unexpected twist at the end! Didn't see that coming at all... The
story brought a smile to me... Heh... Just need to know this, if
D'souza was indeed a robot, why did his makers have to make him
anatomically complete.... Unless he was intended to serve the purpose
that he was being put to by the protagonist' s wife. Ahem...
:) I think we need a backstory to the story... Cause that bit is
unexplained. ..
Weirdly I found the story funny... What that the intention?
Cheers Zeashan!

Cyril

Dr. Arvind Mishra
D'souza was not a robot but an Android-a humanoid in all respect !

Zeashan Zaidi
Arvind Ji,
Though in my view it was the best ending, but things can never be perfect. So thoughts from the side of creative giants are most welcome.

regards

Tinkoo
Ending was the reason I loved the story. Rest of it was rather mundane,
but ending made my day when I saw part 2 yesterday night.

Dr. Arvind Mishra
One more thing about Zeashan ' s story -its a diversion from typical Asimovian robotics premise ! Not just one but two humans have been shown to get murdered by a robot ? Is it Ok with you all ? It was the reason why I was a bit uncomfortable with the end ? Any caveat for/from Zeashan's side?

Cyril Gupta
I don't the Asimovian rules should be considered Universal. The three
laws of Robotics, and also the zero'th law were invented by Asimov so
that he could concoct his stories around them. In other science
stories there can be assassin robots, so the laws don't have to hold,
not on everybody.
I really don't think that Zeashan's story has a problem because it
violates the Asimov's robotics laws. Just that a lot of the backstory
is missing so there's a certain amount of abruptness, but surely if
there was backstory then the ending would become expected and the
surprise will be ruined.
It seems that in Zeashan's story, the robots are first-class citizens
of the society (judging from the way the protagonist treats them early
on, and then at the end). They're sentient and have similar urges and
emotions to a human being.
Regards

Tinkoo
There are far too many stories of killer robots out there - most often
as war machines.

And have you seen Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands"? Even robots
governed by "benign" laws can do far too much damage to people around.
Unfortunately, this widely read classic doesn't seem to be online.

Asimov's Three Laws are only one of the many robot behavior premises
examined in fiction.

PS: Incidentally, Asimov tells us in one of his anthologies that his
robot stories began with ideas from Eando Binder's "I, Robot". And
Binder tells us his story is a reaction to Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein"
- that man's man-like creations need not be bad! Comic book version of
Binder's classic is online:


Cyril Gupta
Has anyone read Ray Bradbury's Marionette's Inc? That's another story
in which a married couple deceives each other using Robots, and though
the man doesn't get killed, he does witness a Robot who falls in love
with his wife...

As for killer robots, there can be nothing beyond the Berserkers who
are Death incarnate, and of course if you read pulp science fiction
then you can think of Daleks, and the Cybermen of Dr. WHO.

So I guess there's enough precedent for Zeashan's story that it
doesn't seem at odds to the established scientific norms, and even if
it were I think we should welcome it, because any new perspective on
science and its impact should be entertained. :)

Dr. Arvind Mishra
So congrats Zeashan ! your story get across well in a rogourous peer review! You come out with flying colours ! Thats graet...keep it up !