The girl who spoke in algorithms

 

Experimental Short Story Series #50
Title: The Girl Who Spoke in Algorithms
By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA)

They called it The Optimization.
A global recalibration of human life—where emotions were declared inefficient, messy, unstable. Nations agreed: feeling was a bug. And so, they coded it out.

Now every child, at the age of seven, received their Algorithm Implant—surgical and silent. Joy became a function: Jx = Output of Success. Sadness was deleted. Love, compressed into 01100110.

Except her.

She had no name in the government grid, just a blinking red error code: Null-7. She was born during a system crash. No implant. No barcode. No script.

And she couldn’t speak.

But she could write.

In the dim underground libraries banned long ago, she learned the old languages—English, Urdu, Arabic, Python, and something stranger still: the syntax of the soul. She called it Emotocode.

At first, it began with simple messages scratched on metal scraps:
if (Hope > Fear) { Rise(); }

But then she started drawing symbols that made flowers bloom from concrete. One night, she etched a pattern into a data terminal—and nearby drones malfunctioned, laughing like children.

People noticed.

First, the dissidents. Then, the data guards. And finally, The Regulator.

“You are dangerous,” he told her. His voice was flat, perfectly filtered.
She nodded.
“You speak what we erased.”
She handed him a slate. It read:
Feel();

He blinked.
And for the first time in decades, his eyes watered.

The city trembled. Firewalls failed. Billboards began displaying poetry. Robotic cleaners stopped and planted trees. A song—ancient and haunting—played from nowhere.

She wrote across the skyline with light:
Love is not a glitch.

She vanished before dawn.
Some say she returned to the mountains. Others claim she became code herself—living in the networks, whispering emotions back into machines.

But wherever a heart stirs in a world grown cold, you’ll find her mark:
if (YouRemember) { YouAreNotAlone(); }

Why We Tell These Stories
This is the 50th tale in our Experimental Short Story Series, and what a milestone it is. From doors that breathe to shadows that rebel, your companionship has turned these digital stories into real experiences.

Each week, a new world. Each entry—a risk. And together, we’ve kept fiction alive, daring, and wild. As we near the 60th tale and prepare for our grand anthology, know this: your reading is the algorithm that keeps us running.

Thank you for coding your time with us.

Read. Feel. Rewrite.
Because tomorrow’s story may just reboot your world.

Visit & Subscribe: farazparvez1.blogspot.com
Curated by: Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The rise and fall of imran Khan niazi... A satirical essay

Image
  The Rise and Fall of Imran Khan Niazi: From The Establishment’s Golden Boy to The Fallen Messiah Written by Faraz Parvez Pen Name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA There are few figures in contemporary politics as paradoxical as Imran Khan Niazi. A man whose political career reads like a tragicomedy, a cricketing hero who tried to bowl out corruption but ended up hitting his own wickets. Once the beloved poster boy of the establishment, now the self-styled revolutionary with a martyr complex—his journey is the stuff of a Shakespearean farce, with generous doses of slapstick and irony. The Saviour Who Needed Saving Once upon a time, Imran Khan was the chosen one . The establishment cradled him like a newborn prince, whispering sweet nothings of ‘Naya Pakistan’ into his ears. He was the hero with an Oxford degree, a World Cup trophy, and a playboy past that magically transformed into Islamic piety overnight. The masses, ...
Read more

The dying whispers of bhera haveli

Image
  Title: “The Dying Whispers of Bhera Haveli” Theme: In a forgotten corner of Punjab, where time stopped and shadows moved without reason, a cursed haveli holds a horrifying secret. What happens when someone hears the whispers that should have stayed buried? By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) The Dying Whispers of Bhera Haveli Based on chilling oral tales from the subcontinent's dust-ridden ruins... In the neglected outskirts of Bhera , an ancient town once glorious in its Mughal past, there stands a crumbling haveli, twisted like a half-dead serpent among the eucalyptus and sheesham trees. The villagers call it “Khooni Haveli”—The Mansion of Blood. No one lives there. No one dares to enter. Except Tariq. He was a small-time real estate broker from Faisalabad. He dealt in disputed lands and run-down buildings, flipping ghost stories into desperate...
Read more

The evolution of the modern Urdu novel

Image
  The Evolution of the Modern Urdu Novel: A Literary Renaissance Urdu literature, with its rich poetic heritage and profound storytelling traditions, has continuously evolved to reflect the changing landscapes of South Asia and beyond. While Urdu poetry has long been celebrated for its lyrical beauty, it is the Urdu novel that has captured the essence of social, political, and psychological transformations over the past century. From the didactic realism of Deputy Nazir Ahmed to the avant-garde narratives of Mirza Athar Baig , the Urdu novel has transformed from a medium of moral instruction to an art form that challenges political structures, psychological paradigms, and literary conventions . Today, Urdu novelists are addressing themes of globalization, migration, gender dynamics, and existentialism , making the Urdu novel an indispensable part of world literature. From Classic to Contemporary: A Shifting Paradigm The birth of the Urdu novel can be traced back to the 1...
Read more