Alina was sitting at the table, busy with her homework, when she felt thirsty. She ordered the fridge, still sitting, “Fridge dear, please send me a glass of water. It should be slightly cold. Hurry up! I’m waiting.”

Aapi, who was also in the room, knitting a crochet bag, smiled and went to the fridge to fetch water for Alina. With a naughty smile, Alina took the water and drank it.

After a while she thought to start her maths work, but the book was in the lounge. She addressed the book in a loud clear voice, ordering, “Dear maths book, come to me quickly. I want to finish my homework earlier today.”

She waited but, to her dismay, no response came. This time Aapi wasn’t around to bring the book. So she had to go and bring it herself.

If somebody had ever asked Alina what her greatest wish in life was, she would have abruptly replied that she wanted things to move on their own to obey her orders — like the scene from a sci-fi movie. But the sad thing was, she was not in any sci-fi movie where things move with the command of your voice.

It was a pleasant evening of a weekend. Alina was very happy and relaxed because she had already finished her homework, which meant that she had enough time to play indoor as well as outdoor games. She sat popped up against the bed’s headboard, with the laptop on her lap and opened her favourite game about cooking. She was preparing a Black Forest cake, virtual though, when the laptop notified that the battery was low. She looked around for the charger but remembered that she had last seen it in the next room.

Like always, Alina called the charger and ordered it to come quickly. This time her Aapi didn’t turn up, but to her surprise, she saw the charger floated in air, moving in her direction! It automatically plugged one end in the socket and the other one in the laptop.

She was awestruck! She couldn’t believe her eyes, she thought she was dreaming. And to test if she really was dreaming, she thought of trying it again and ordered the sandwich-maker to prepare chicken sandwiches, and the electric kettle to make a cup of tea for her.

Within the next five minutes, both the orders were fulfilled. A tray containing sandwiches and tea appeared before her. She almost fainted with shock!

Though she didn’t understand how it was happening, she didn’t care as she was very happy that her wishes were coming true.

And now she wanted to read some stories from a children’s magazine. So she ordered all the magazines to line up in front of her so that she could choose which one she really wanted to read. Amazingly, things happened according to her order again.

She selected a magazine and ordered the others to go back where they were placed. She was engrossed in a mesmerising story when someone shook her shoulder and gently said, “Alina, why are you sleeping in a half-sitting position, your back will hurt. And this laptop, why is it open in your lap?”

Alina opened her eyes and looked around. Aapi was leaning on her to see if she was fine. She realised that she had fallen asleep while baking the virtual Black Forest cake. It turned out that those wonderful things were happening only in her dream! And the amazing world had also gone. Realising this, she almost had tears in her eyes. She then told everything to Aapi.

Aapi smiled and said,“Don’t worry, honey. Simply pray for what you want. Much has been done to develop robots to do different chores for humans. I hope, one day, your wish will come true in reality too.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 20th, 2018