At the sight of Neetan, Shubhangi trembled all over. She remembered the evening of her birthday celebration when Neetan had tightly grabbed her hand, snatched the glass tumbler of red wine, and thrown it on the floor where it broke into a hundred pieces. She had been frightened out of her wits by the thought "what if this man grabs my throat with such force and strangulates me?" She felt Neetan was looking at her in a way no one had ever done before. His repeatedly calling her "Charu" made her believe that he had a deranged mind. From that day on, she was afraid of even leaving the house. His queer behaviour brought to her mind images of the serial killers she had seen in Netflix movies who go around strangulating innocent girls.

As the days went by, Shubhangi overcame her fear and started going out, and today, while searching for a good novel, she had come out to the shopping mall. Now, suddenly, seeing Neetan's face in front of her, she shivered with panic. She threw the books on the shelf from where she had picked them up and rushed out. Neetan ran after her. She ran, desperate to escape, screaming "Help, help!" The entire mall erupted in chaos. People shouted, "Catch him! Catch him!"

A security guard on the first floor whistled, as he ran up the escalator. Several other security guards also ran from here and there. Shubhangi ran into a nearby corridor, but the corridor had a dead-end. She huddled into a corner and, with folded hands, pleaded with Neetan, "I am someone's wife. Please don't defile me. I am like a younger sister to you!" Neetan's gaze had agony writ on his face, as if he was seeing someone dear to him being subjected to torcher. He kept reassuring Shubhangi: "I will do no harm to you. But I won't allow them to kill you. You don't know how dangerous that old man with a white flowing beard is."

Shubhangi's voice trembled. She panicked that Neetan would grab her any moment. Meanwhile, three or four security guards arrived and grabbed Neetan and pulled him away. Seizing the opportunity, Shubhangi made an escape. Neetan brought all his strength together, pushed the security guards and broke free. He made a desperate rush towards Shubhangi. By then, Shubhangi had descended the escalator halfway. Neetan jumped down and landed in front of her. He threw his arms around her, and said, "Don't be afraid, Charu. You're safe in my arms. I will not allow any of these rascals to touch you."

By this time, the security guards had arrived. One of them punched Neetan hard in the jaw. Another came from somewhere with a stick and brutally attacked him. Shubhangi took her chance, ran out of the gate of the mall while the common people gave way to her. She got into her car and sped off.

At this juncture, a police car arrived, making a peeyoon-peeyoon sound, and took Neetan away.

While all this was going on, Ruchika sat comfortably ensconced in the sofa in her house, sipping cold coca cola and watching a Meena Kumari movie of olden days, totally unaware of what was happening to her husband. It was then that her phone rang. She saw an unknown number and cut the call. But the person at the other end persisted, and on the fourth call she let out an expletive and, muttering "Some bloody ad-dist" said a reluctant hello. A voice at the other end said, "Ruchika Madam?" She queried, "Yes?" The voice at the other end said, "Madam, I am Inspector Sushodhan. A young man has been brought to the police station by our control room party. He was injured when in a shopping mall the security staff tried to restrain him. He was trying to molest a young woman called Charu. He is reluctant to tell his name and address and mumbles some garbled words when questioned, acting as if he does not understand anything. We found your name on his phone against "My Dear Love". That is why I disturbed you. "

The tumbler of coke fell from Ruchika's hands. Her heart thumped to imagine what had happened. She forgot to switch off the TV, jumped into the car and sped off to the police station. There, on a small wooden bench, Neetan sat innocently looking around and trying to come out of his stupor. He had lacerations on his face from which blood was oozing. Ruchika burst into tears, held Neetan in her arms and repeatedly kissed his blood-spattered face. Then, she folded her hands towards the inspector and said in a pitiful voice, "My husband suffers from mental illness. He's not at fault. Please let him go." The inspector made Ruchika sit down, gave her water, and said, "Madam, he was behaving indecently with a girl." Ruchika interrupted, "You don't know my husband. He's like a god. He's never harmed even an insect." The inspector said, "Madam, if the victim comes to file a complaint, we won't be able to do anything. For now, we'll send him with you, but you will have to give a written guarantee that he won't do this again."

Ruchika brought Neetan home, fed him, and put him to sleep. Then she called Dr. Subramaniam and told him the whole story. Dr. Subramaniam said, "This is a serious matter indeed. Not vitamin deficiency, as I thought earlier, but much more. Perhaps it's a case of split personality. I have a friend named Ram Prasad. We call him Ramu. He's an expert on this subject. I'll talk to him."

An hour later, Dr. Subramaniam called Ruchika: "Ramu says it has to be nothing but a case of split personality. He asked your phone number. I have given it. He will call you."

Ruchika was absolutely restless. She asked, "Doctor, will Neetan be okay?" The doctor replied, "Let's hope so. In childhood sometimes a person becomes a victim of abuse or seems something happening in front of his eyes that causes a trauma. In later life, it suddenly breaks from the unconscious into the conscious mind and causes the person to split into two. Such problems are tricky, but I have faith in Dr. Ram Prasad. Even more, I have faith in Bhagwan Ram."

A short while later, Dr. Ram Prasad called Ruchika. He spoke lovingly, addressing her as "daughter." His voice seemed to put a soothing balm on Ruchika's bleeding heart. His voice seemed to carry the voice of Bhagwan Ram, the Saviour of us all.

When someone very close to you is in pain, the doctor who relieves that pain becomes a god worthy of worship.

Dr Ram Prasad had a way of adding fun into the drab and the trite. He said, "Look Ruchika. I am going to make a fool of your husband. I am going to show him videos in which that girl appears, and I will watch his reactions. I wish to see what it is in her appearance or behaviour that instigates him."

"Doctor, can I venture a guess?"

"Please go ahead."

"Neetan has always believed that women should be sober and should not try to escalate their sex-appeal."

"Could be," said the doctor. "I want you to obtain the video footage of that girl roaming around in the mall. Mind you, Neetan should not appear in the video. Only that girl and in a very natural manner. He should not know that we want him specially to see her."

"But, Doctor, will Neetan not ask: Why am I being shown all this?" asked Ruchika.

"That's what I was coming to." Explained the Doctor. "You should tell him that Dr. Ram Prasad is conducting a research to see whether men and women react differently to objects around them when they go to a shopping mall. So, he will show us videos of malls and then ask us to list out the items we found most attractive. That will give him an idea of what he calls Gender-based Differential Cognisance." After a short pause, the Doctor said, "Send me the videos by today evening."

Ruchika went straight to the police station and met the Inspector, "Sir, nobody will give videos to me. You can get them in the name of investigation."

The Inspector was sympathetic. He said, "I have videos collected on other occasions. I will give those. Plus, I will collect videos for this girl's visit."

By seven O' clock Dr Ram Prasad's whatsapp had been bombarded with videos. He called his interns and explained to them the entire situation. He told them to create a collage of videos so that the videos in which that girl appeared would not get focused. The students did a good job, and all was ready for Project Gender-based Differential Cognisance.

Dr Shikha, one of the naughty ones among Dr. Ram Prasad's interns said, "Doctor, why don't you also pass all of us through this interesting Gender-based Differential Cognisance test to see how the men and women in our batch differ in what attracts them.

Dr Neena quipped, "There is no need for such a test in your case. In your case we all know that you are only attracted towards Dr. Prahlad and Dr. Prahlad towards you."

At this, Dr Menon said, "I am trying to cause a split in Shikha's personality and attract her partly towards me." Dr Ram Prasad's office chamber echoed with huge laughter.

"OK guys," said Dr. Ram Prasad when the laughter had subsided, "Till 10 O' clock tomorrow. Be prepared to observe every move, every gesture, every movement of eye of our subject Mr. Neetan.