Nature's Comeback

53- A weird T.V

Sameera stood before two adjacent rooms contemplating which one Kriti's mother told her about. Sameera had stained her saree while putting the used utensils in the sink after dinner. Thankfully, Kriti's mother was nice enough to offer her own saree or else Sameera would have to sleep in that stained attire. But now the problem was the room.

Kriti's mother had been just leaving for Tej's house to help others settle down when this fiasco happened. So she just told Sameera to take her saree from the left cupboard of the right room. Or was it the right cupboard in the left room? "How can I forget something that was told to me just a few seconds ago?" Sameera groaned.

Let's knock and see. If it is Kriti's room then her uncle who has taken over her room would answer. And if there's no response then it is the room I need to go to. Going forward with the plan, Sameera knocked on one door. Not receiving any answer, she smiled and turned the knob.

"Oh!" Sameera frowned looking at the small T.V that kept on playing in an empty room. "They surely don't care about the bill," she muttered with a shake of her head. What confused her more was the lack of sound. "Is it not working properly?" She questioned out loud, before going near the small T.V.

It seemed weird to her as the T.V looked far different from the one she had seen. Along with the screen, it also had alphabets and numbers. It looked different too, making her question whether it was a T.V. or not. But the old movie that had been playing made her discard all her questions. "Must be a new model," she shrugged and looked around to see what can be done for the lack of sound.

She gave a harsh pat to the back of the T.V. as that was what they did in her childhood when T.V or radio stopped working properly. Not seeing any change, she increased the intensity of the hits. The last force was too much and the T.V. ended up falling on the floor.

Sameera's breath was caught in her throat when the T.V fell down. She couldn't understand how the T.V was so fragile and what shocked her more was the lack of wires attached to it. How was the T.V playing a movie when it wasn't even connected to the plug?

There were too many questions roaming around in Sameera's mind but the most important one was what answer would she give to Kriti and her parents when they find out that she had broken their T.V?

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ravi, Kriti's uncle shouted as he wheeled himself out of the bathroom, seeing a stranger on the floor picking up something.

He got scared upon hearing a loud thud and hurried to come out to see what was wrong, causing him to slip a little. He was already annoyed by the turn of events and seeing a stranger in his room added to his anger.

"Shit! It was your room," Sameera cursed under her breath, before explaining what all happened, "And when I tried to make the T.V work, it ended up falling down."

"Are you stupid?" Ravi shouted, "it is a laptop and not a T.V. Who the hell gets confused between them?" He had wheeled forward when Sameera started explaining and his anger broke all the records when he saw what was left of his laptop.

"Lap..top..." Sameera was confused, having heard of the word for the first time.

"Yes, laptop which you have mercilessly destroyed," Ravi shouted, snatching the broken laptop from her hands.

"Even kids know that these things are expensive and should be handled with care," Ravi grumbled as he tried to switch on the laptop even though the screen was broken beyond repair.

"Do you even know how expensive it was? Who will pay for the repairs? You?" He questioned in a snarky tone, looking at her plain attire.

"I..." Sameera couldn't speak as her throat was choked up due to crying.

Stupid, destroyed, even kids know...all these words and his taunting gaze created a havoc in her heart. She tried to open her mouth to apologize but before she could utter a word, Neer's voice came from behind. "We will pay for the repairs," as he and Ahana entered the room.

Ahana barely managed to stop herself from burning him right there and then. But that didn't mean she kept quiet. "The amount required for repairing the laptop would be paid by us. Though I can't say the same for your body if you don't shut your trap."

"Are you making fun of me being handicapped?" Ravi asked, shocked by the audacity of the girl.

"She is talking about the rest of your body she would break," Neer clarified.

Ravi gulped seeing the enraged youngsters.

Sameera took a deep breath and finally managed to gain the courage to speak up for herself.

"I am sorry for my mistake. I promise to make it up to you. But please keep one thing in mind. Just like you were offended when you thought they made fun of your physical disability, I too was hurt when you called me stupid. So I would prefer it, if you don't use words like stupid or idiot for me."

Ravi furrowed his eyebrows, "These were just the normal words people call each other. Like they aren't curse words or anything."

"I know people use it without a second thought and it is fine until and unless it affects someone. And for me, these words do have a strong effect.

"I know that I don't know about many things, but being called out hurts me. I already know my shortcomings, you don't need to point it out. So please, it is my sincere request." Sameera joined her hands at the last.

Ravi closed his eyes for a second, understanding the blunder. He very well knew how some words which were usual for others could cause tremendous pain to others.

"I am sorry. I will keep in mind to not use those terms," he apologized, knowing that he went far with his speaking.

The anger wasn't only about the broken laptop, the earlier slip in the bathroom had caused him a lot of distress which turned into anger. But that didn't mean he could use that as an excuse to get out of it. Not to mention his thoughts of her by looking at her plain attire. He was completely losing it in his crankiness. Ravi felt ashamed of himself.

He came out of his thoughts when he heard the other three people in his room arguing.

"Do you even have money?" Sameera shouted at the twins. "I am grateful that you want to help me but how will you do it? You two aren't even earning for the past few days since the disasters hit." She threw her arms up in frustration.

"We have some savings," Neer spoke in a low, scared voice and immediately shut his mouth when he saw Sameera's glare.

Sameera shook her head at the twins, before turning towards Ravi. "Listen, I don't have any kind of money. Can I repay it with my body? I am ready to do anything you ask me to."

The twins coughed while Ravi scratched his forehead, listening to Sameera's words.

"What's with the reaction?" Sameera mumbled to herself, before requesting Ravi once again, "Please, I can do the household chores really well. I can cook for you, even do your laundry. You will get tired by ordering me around, but my hands and legs won't get tired by doing all the chores. I will work until the day you feel that my work has been equivalent to the money required for repairs."

"Sure," Ravi agreed in a squeaky voice as he tried to muffle his laughter.

The naive woman didn't even realize the sexual innuendo her earlier words had created.