The market in Dharampur was a place of noise and dust, where voices rose like crows fighting over scraps. Ravi weaved through the crowd carrying a cloth bag of old radios and phones he had collected from scrap dealers. Most were useless—cracked screens, dead batteries, missing buttons. But to Ravi, they were puzzles waiting to be solved.
He spread a tattered sheet on the ground and began arranging the phones. A few men stopped to watch.
"Are these working, boy?" one asked, squinting at a scratched Nokia.
"Half-working," Ravi replied with a grin. "But if you give me two hours, I'll make it work fully. Pay me only if it does."
The man chuckled. "You're either very bold or very stupid."
"Maybe both," Ravi said, and the small crowd laughed.
By evening, Ravi had earned more than he ever had in a single day. His fingers were raw from tinkering, but he felt alive. For the first time, he wasn't just carrying sacks—he was building something of his own.
When he returned home, he placed the coins on the wooden table. His mother's eyes widened.
"Where did this come from?" she asked sharply.
"From broken things," Ravi said. "Turns out even broken things can give life again."
His sister Meera clapped her hands. "Bhaiya is a magician!"
But the magic didn't last.
A week later, Ravi discovered that one of the phones he had repaired and sold stopped working. The customer stormed into the tea stall, shouting, cursing, demanding his money back. Others soon followed, claiming Ravi had cheated them.
By nightfall, his little pile of coins had turned into debts. His reputation—so carefully built—collapsed in a single evening.
That night, Ravi sat outside in the dark, the shouts of angry customers echoing in his ears. His mother placed a hand on his shoulder.
"This world doesn't forgive mistakes easily," she said quietly.
Ravi clenched his fists. "Then I'll make sure I don't repeat them. One day, Ma, people won't just buy from me… they'll beg me to sell to them."
And though his pockets were empty again, something far more valuable had been planted inside him: the stubborn refusal to quit.