Pachayammal (Payal) - The beginning

I could still feel the anger on Neha's face. After an hour of heated arguments, things haven't turned out to be any better. I did all my best to console her but only to see them go in vain. Payal, who was very young, couldn't understand our conversation and was staring at us innocently. Neha stood speechless and following a few minutes of silence, tears started flowing down her cheeks. She felt broken inside; who wouldn't be?. She ran towards our daughter Payal and hugged her tightly. It was several days since the incident and Neha hasn't spoken to me yet. This was the first time something like this has happened between us. I knew I was the reason behind this but was not sure on how to fix it. The only questions going through my mind were those from Neha; "How could you do this to our child? What else are you gonna do to her?"

Neha and I were happily married for more than 5 years. Our only daughter Payal is just 1 year old now. Yes, we had some issues with having our first child. I could still remember the happiness in Neha's face on hearing the news from the doctor. A few days after she was born we named her Payal as a short form for Pachayammal (derived from the name of our Tutelary deity , Pachayamman), since Pachayammal sounded out of fashion. But my mom believed that she was none other than our Tutelary and always called her as Pachayammal. From the beginning Payal was much different from other children. She had a normal weight and was active. The strange thing was that she avoided intake of any food. The doctors did several tests and everything was normal. Even after a few months, we still had to force feed her. To everyone's surprise, her health was always normal. 

One summer morning, I was taking Payal to doctor for a regular check-up. My mom was also accompanying me to take care of her. The clinic was locked and we had to wait outside in the sun for sometime. Though it was a little hot, Payal seemed to be enjoying it. She was a lot more active than how she use to be at home. A few minutes later she started developing pale green patches on her skin. We immediately rushed into the car to avoid the sun. My mom looked at me and said "See, you didn't people believe so long. She is definitely our Tutelary, Pachayammal". I didn't know how to respond to it. At the right moment, the doctor had just arrived and the patches also disappeared. We told the doctor about what had just happened but didn't want to risk taking Payal back in the sun to recreate the symptom. The doctor checked Payal and told she was alright. I had a strange fear in my mind though.

We avoided taking her out while it was very sunny. Meanwhile she continued to avoid food which made us feel disturbed. A few weeks passed and we had to take her in the sun again. The patches appeared again and I doubted if my fear would come true. I took Payal to my friend's lab and ask him to perform a DNA test on her. The result confirmed my fears. The genetic material had indeed managed to integrate itself with the host DNA and has started expressing itself. I wasn't sure about being happy or to be worried. There were a lot of questions going in my mind. "What would happen to her in the future? Would this be the answer to millions dying of hunger? How would Neha react once I tell her about this? Is there a way to revert this?..."

I gathered all my courage and went up to Neha. I ensured she was in a calm mood which she always maintained. I slowly explained her about the situation. I was working on a project to test different pigments that were capable of creating energy from light. The gene expression was very much positive in mice. But since genetic engineering on humans required a lot of approvals, I decided to test it on myself. There was no reaction on me but somehow has got transmitted to Payal and expressed itself successfully. This was the reason why Payal was always active and healthy, though she never wanted to have food. She was drawing all her energy from the surrounding light. Neha was speechless after hearing this. She burst into anger. She asked me how I could do this to our daughter and what else I was planning to do with her. I didn't have any answer to it. She started crying and hugged Payal tightly. After this incident, Neha didn't speak to me for days. I was spending most of the time in my lab trying to find if there was a way out of this.

To be continued..