The Vidhana Soudha is the seat of power in Karnataka. It is a massive granite fortress. And like all fortresses, it is guarded by dragons.
In this case, the dragon was a Personal Assistant named Mr. Rao.
He sat outside the office of Mr. Kulkarni, IAS, the Secretary of Revenue. Mr. Rao was a small man with a big ego. He was the gatekeeper.
"No appointment, no meeting," Rao said, not even looking up from his newspaper. "Leave a letter. The Secretary is busy."
Aisha stepped forward.
"Sir, this is urgent. We have a technology that can save the department crores..."
"Everyone has technology," Rao scoffed. "Last week a man came with a 'magic calculator'. Go away."
Radha looked ready to cry. Meera looked ready to punch him.
Arjun stepped forward.
He activated [Scan].
[Target: Mr. Rao (PA to Secretary)]
[Weakness: Cricket betting debts. Highly superstitious. Believes in astrology.]
[Current Mood: Terrified regarding a lost file about the 'Bellary Survey'.]
Arjun smiled.
"Mr. Rao," Arjun said softly.
The man looked down, annoyed. "What, boy?"
"The 'Bellary Survey' file," Arjun whispered. "It's not lost. It slipped behind the drawer in the third cabinet. The blue one."
Rao froze. His newspaper crumpled in his hands. He stared at the boy.
"H-How...?"
"I have the 'sight'," Arjun lied smoothly. "And the sight tells me that if you let us in to see Mr. Kulkarni for five minutes... your luck will change. If you don't... well, Saturn is entering your house of career today."
Rao turned pale. He was a man who lived on bribes and fear. He scrambled out of his chair, checked the third cabinet, and found the file.
He looked at Arjun as if he were a wizard.
"Five minutes," Rao squeaked, wiping sweat from his brow. "Go in. Quickly. Before he leaves for lunch."
Aisha looked at Arjun, her mouth slightly open. "Did you just...?"
"Astrology is a powerful science," Arjun winked. "Let's go."
They pushed open the heavy teak doors.
Mr. Kulkarni, IAS, was a man buried under mountains of paper. He looked up, annoyed. "Who let you in? I told Rao no visitors."
"Mr. Secretary," Aisha said, stepping into her role. "We are Bharat-Digital. We are here to solve the problem on your desk."
She pointed to the mountain of rotting land records.
"We don't need a presentation," Arjun said, placing the crumpled, yellowed deed they had scanned the night before on the table. Next to it, he placed a printout of the digitized text.
"We built a machine that did this in three seconds," Arjun stated.
Kulkarni looked at the old paper. Then at the clean, printed text. He adjusted his glasses. He looked closely. He checked the survey number. He checked the name.
He looked up. The annoyance was gone. In its place was the desperate hope of a bureaucrat drowning in work.
"Where is this machine?" Kulkarni asked.
"It's in a heavy box downstairs," Meera said. "Do you want a demo?"
Kulkarni stood up. "Bring it up. If this works... I will give you the keys to the kingdom."
Arjun smiled. The door was open.