Something strange, something unbelievable spreading across the city covered the highlights of the news.

The queue at the front of the psychiatrists grew each day. The appointments with the neurologists increased each day. The number of MRI scans of the brain grew each day. With no conclusion yet.

People stayed indoors, scared that they would be the next target. But the target for what? For whom? None had the answer. 

There have been cases reported daily that people are losing consciousness. No, they are conscious, they move by themselves, and they eat, but no they look blank. What is happening?

It looks like someone has sucked out all the emotions from the brain of the people.

They answer your question. But they are emotionless. It is like suddenly the neurons responsible for the emotions have stopped working. But the scans, the hormones in the brain, everything is normal.

They remember their name, but they do not know the meaning of laugh, cry, happy, sad, or smile.

These suddenly seemed alien to those people.

It wasn’t a single case. The people who went for a walk early in the morning in a particular park and returned home were emotionless. The people who went out for work returned emotionless. There was no memory loss, they remembered their names, work, addresses, and everything. But we’re devoid of emotions.

None have seen them being unconscious or undergoing trauma or anything they could relate to the case. Also, could not have taken place at the same time for the majority.

The investigation has begun. The air around the area they had walked, and the water they had consumed were investigated to find out any clues. But everything looked normal. 

“Humans to robots” – is the headline every day. Months have passed since the first incident was reported. Unable to find the reason how and why people were targeted. No new viruses or mutations were found. Without predicting the reason, the treatments were on hold. Unsure of how the treatment would affect their brains.

It was only then that a person claimed to have come up with the solution.

He said, “I would paint the blank canvas of the mind with emotions through my music.” 

None believed him. Many said they had already tried music therapy but had not worked out.

He said, “you tried therapy, not art. Music therapy heals your brain but it does not paint new emotions in it. The emotions add colours to the blank canvas of the brain. The memories are drawn on the canvas, filled with shades of emotions. Sometimes the waves of reality mix the colours making it a mess. That is when music therapy comes to help. It clears the mess. But what you see here is the blank canvas of the brain. It has no colours to clear the mess. But we need to add the colours, we need to add the emotions. So I will paint the canvas with my music rather than clean it with therapy. Call me the musical painter.”

People feared at the beginning, that they might lose their memory, all the drawings of life. But the colourless life made them give it a try.

First was a husband, accompanied by his wife who was emotionless now. He put in all the courage and met the musical painter asking him to paint the emotions in his wife. “She was the most chirpy and active lady I had ever met. She happily went to work early that day, but she was blank by the time she was back. She carried on with her routine robotically. I thought she was tired or upset. But I was wrong. She had lost her emotions. But she had not forgotten anything. Could you please give me back my wife, the one who laughed wholeheartedly even at the silliest of things?” He requested.

The musical painter agreed and took her into a soundproof room. With none of the sound waves entering inside and asked her to put on headphones and close her eyes.

He started playing one of the recorded music he had. “You will learn to laugh,” he said as he turned on the music player.

The music continued for an hour and she did learn to laugh. The therapy continued for around a month and each day she learned an emotion as the musical painter painted an emotion into her blank canvas of the brain.

As time passed, he became famous. More people started consulting him. People who were sucked out of emotions were getting back to being normal. People he treated, now thought highly of the musical painter.

He was now a world-renowned therapist who was a musical painter. All the musical therapists were amazed. He never gave out the secret of how his musical painting worked.

It was almost a year before the musical painter started painting emotions into blank minds. Though he found a solution to put back emotions through musical paintings, the reason for blankness or emotions being sucked out was yet unknown.

One day someone knocked on the musical painter’s house.

“Yes, come in,” he said, expecting a usual, emotionless visitor, looking for a musical painting.

But there was a lady who was not devoid of emotions. He asked her to take a seat and asked who needs his musical paint.

She said, “None. I dropped in for a chat. I am a research student. I wanted to know more about the condition and the treatment you developed and call the musical paint.”

He said, “sorry I do not give out my secrets. This can be misused by others. I do not believe anyone in this world. So I do not entertain any research students,” he said firmly.

The lady said, “yes, you would not believe anyone else because you know none can believe you. You say someone might misuse it, but I guarantee that you are the one misusing it. I know that it was you who sucked out the emotions and you are the one painting back the emotions. Answer me. You cannot miss answering me because I am not just a research student but a reporter and you are live,” she said switching on the TV on his table.

Beads of sweat accumulated on his forehead. “How do you say I am the one who sucked out the emotions?” he questioned.

She said, “It was around six months back, I was in the same park where the people went emotionless. But I did not lose any of my emotions. I was surprised that day. But today I know I have an answer for it,” she said.

He sat silent as she continued, “I was about to put on my earphones as I started walking, but I remember some weird music had started playing around. I thought someone would be playing it. Since I wanted to listen to my favourite song, I increased the volume of my phone and was engrossed in my songs. So I did not listen to the music that was playing. But today, I know you erased the emotions through music and now you paint back the emotions through music. Can you prove me wrong?”

After a long period of silence, he finally agreed, “yes, I played the music that erased the emotions.”

“How?” she asked.

“Have you ever seen how the waves propagate in the pond when you throw a stone? Similarly, the neurons in the brain vibrate creating waves of emotions. The most prominent wave or pattern decides the emotion we have at that moment. Similarly, I studied the waves and the frequencies of each emotion. I created music to create a wave such that the crest of the musical wave would overlap with the trough of the wave of emotion in the brain. It makes sure that no waves of frequencies of emotions arise.

And then later I created music for each frequency of emotion and when I played it to them I made sure the neurons in the brain resonated to match that frequency. Slowly rising back the waves of emotions in them. This way I painted back the emotions in them,” he said with a sigh.

“But why?” she asked.

“I researched these things. But my thesis was rejected each time. Only money ruled the world, I realised. I found my way to earn money,” he said. 

Handcuffed, he was sent to jail. He never felt sorry. The people for whom he painted emotions had an emotion for him and fought for his release. He was happy to know about it.

It was the year 2100, and finally, the world had seen how the resonance in the neurons could be used to play with emotions, though his thesis was rejected each time.