Rudra Vishant Tyagi is a normal guy, he works hard in his office during the day, works out, eats and takes care of his younger brother Kartik. At night, he fights for money, he is an ardent Kalaripayattu enthusiast and uses this ancient form of mart...
Kartik was being fed properly by his kidnappers, but, even then, he seemed to get weaker everyday. He had had a 4-course meal for lunch in the afternoon, and all of the items were tasty, these people were decent kidnappers, like his bhaiyā used to tell him about from that novel,'The Sicilian', he had not read the book himself, but he had imagined that this is how the kidnappers would be in that book. If it weren't for the love of his brother, he wouldn't ever want to leave from this place, he had such a comfortable bed, an air conditioner, a huge TV, the food he was eating was so royal, that he couldn't imagine eating better food. There was even a PS4 hooked up to the TV, and so many games! Well, even with all this, living there felt like hell to him. He was cooperating with them because he knew his brother would show up one day to rescue him, but each moment that passed, he would feel so choked up inside, it would feel like someone had poked his heart with a lot of pins and he were bleeding internally, at random points in time he would start shivering and sweating. He couldn't remember the face of his father or mother, his brother was everything to him, and they had taken him away. Once, he was beaten up by a bully at school, his brother had taken care of him and taught him to fight a little bit. 'Be brave, there will be times when I won't be there, when...I might not be there to help you, then what will you do? Please don't give up at that point in time. You are a survivor. I carried you for a lot of days as an infant, you got a lot of high fevers, but you fought through all of them, honestly, if I were in your place, I would die. That one day, when you protected that pigeon who had a broken wing from that dog, even though you had a fear of dogs before, remember that feeling, of how you overcame that fear. It's not being fearless that is important, you will always get afraid of some thing or the other, what is important is to overcome your fears, for if you don't do that, they will overcome you, control you and I might lose you. Always remember this, be brave Kartik.' He could feel his brother resting his hand on his right shoulder from behind. He stood up, motivated. 'I'm going to find a way out. I don't believe how much like a coward I have been. I will be brave Bhaiyā, I promise you, I remember how hard you have worked for me, so many nights you used to come back with a broken nose, or bandages on your arms, legs or face, even though you had won, I never thought it was worth it, whenever I told you, you would just smile and say,"I never back down from a good fight. That is the power of my heart and your belief in me, the day you lose trust in me, I will start losing these matches." You wanted me to be brave, so I shall be brave. I shall escape.' He went up to the door and placed his hand on the doorknob and gave it a slight turn and to his surprise, it was unlocked. Outside was a really long hallway, made up of white walls and so many black doors, only one door was red, the one at the other end of the hallway. He started walking to the red door. 'I am brave and I am strong, I can escape.' After walking forward for a little bit he noticed a symbol on the red door.
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It was 'phi'. The golden ratio, his bhaiyā had taught him, was represented by this symbol. The Fibonacci sequence was what got closer to it in value the higher you moved up, but what would it really entail anything? He kept on walking, he felt a slight swish of wind suddenly on his ankles, it was almost unnoticeable, it was very, very subtle. Had he not worn shorts, he might not have felt it. In normal circumstances, someone would have taken that wind as a warning. That didn't stop his determination to walk forward. He kept on walking towards the red door, there were doors on his right side and on the left there was a long wall, which led from the door of his room to the red door. He opened the red door and it was glimmering with light. 'What in the world was that symbol for then?' He walked through the light and saw another hallway, it was quiet similar to the previous one. "Déjà vu," he exclaimed. There were 8 doors on the right side of the wall, the left side had no doors and there was a red door at the end of the hall, another symbol was etched upon it. He started walking closer, "What, this can't be happening!" The symbol on the red door, was the symbol of 'phi', the golden ratio. "Is it the same door?" he whispered. He turned around and was shocked! The door he had passed through was the door of his room. "How could this be?" He became angry and started walking again, again he felt the swish of wind. "I am not scared of you." He ran towards the red door and opened it again, he saw the light and walked through the door again. As soon as he walked through it, he turned around and....it was his room again. "So that is why there are no guards around. Hmm." He started to slowly walk towards the red door again. After a few seconds or so, he felt the swish of wind again. 'What if this wind has a dual purpose, what if it is a clue?' Kartik turned to his left, and saw the wall. 'Nothing special about this wall.' He turned to the right. 'Well, bhaiyā did tell me the golden ratio, it was 1.618.' He was staring at the first door in this series of 8 doors. 'Maybe, this is it.' He put his hand on the doorknob of the first black door and opened the door and stepped through the glowing light. The room was slightly different now, albeit similar. There were doors on both the left and right walls now and it seems they were paired up, the closest were the two doors on the left, then there was quite some gap between the second door and the third door, almost as if, leaving the space for two doors in between, just opposite to that blank space on the right wall were two doors with some blank space before them. The doors seemed to alternate. At the end of the hallway, the red door seemed to have the same symbol, but the first curve of it was glowing now. He turned around, there was no door on the back anymore. 'So, the first door led to here, this means that this is the correct route. So, 1.618 should be the key here. Umm...' He walked towards the first door on the left, there was no wind, he kept on walking forward, he felt a very faint sensation on his ankle again, it was the 4th door on the left where he felt it. The sensation was so faint that if he were not as alert, he might have not even felt it. He turned the door of the knob and stepped in. The room changed again. It was the same as the first room, but, there was no door at his back and the 'phi' symbol was now glowing in two more places, the top and the bottom bump on it. 'So, 1.618 is the answer. Let's go through the first door now.' Again the room changed, it had the alternating doors pattern. He went through the 8th door. This time the room had changed again, a little more so than before, there were 9 doors on the right side of the wall. And the door at the end was blue. Also, it had the 'pi' symbol on it.
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