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Just as Pawan Pande strode into the office, the lights flickered and failed: a power outage. Only the emergency tubelight continued casting a dismal glow over the main hall. By its faint light, he got to his cabin. In the darkness, the computer was only a hazy silhouette. The phone and the intercom looked dead. It seemed as though all of creation was lying inert.

When the electric current did not fail, this small room was his empire. In a little while, his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness and he could discern the outline of the mouse, lying on the table. Pawan smiled to himself. This was a mouse in shape alone; it had none of the bounciness of the animal. Without electricity, it looked like a toy. He said, “Speak mouse, or be silent forever.”

The mouse chose silence. Suddenly, Pawan thought of his younger brother, Saghan. As children, the two of them would make midnight raids on the kitchen for biscuits. Their incursion would disturb the large rats that made a regular nocturnal invasion. The rats terrified Pawan but not Saghan. He would open the door, turn on the light and miaow. The rats would assume that a cat was...

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