Nature's Comeback

56- Documentary

Sameera was about to call Ravi for their learning session but stopped when she heard him yelling on the phone.

"I don't care if you think I am putting a lot of work on you. Pull your socks up, because I am going to send you to three more locations."

Sameera saw him moving his hand through his hair as his face turned red with anger, when he listened to the other side of the call.

"Listen girl, be grateful that I haven't suspended you for what you did. Do you even realize what would have happened to the whole team, if I hadn't noticed that a part of the documentary was deleted?

"I know the workload is more, but we don't have any choice. We need to cover up months of work that got wasted. So either make up for your mistake by performing well or just leave the team."

Sameera entered the room, letting Ravi know about her presence. She gestured to calm down as his tone had reached heights.

He nodded and took deep breaths, before speaking again on the phone, "Okay listen, I am sorry. You are a valuable team member and the team needs you. Sorry for asking you to leave like that.

"Do one thing, finish the work on the current location and then you can go on a small break. I will see what I can do for other locations."

"No, I don't have any back up plan."

"I guess, I will have to go by myself."

"No, I haven't taken interviews after the accident."

"Of course, I am scared."

Sameera bit her lips as she saw so many emotions pass through Ravi's face. He was literally trembling at the thought of going back on field.

"Will you?" Ravi sighed in relief. "I promise to give you a paid vacation after this. Thank you, thank you so much. And sorry for yelling earlier. Yeah okay, bye."

"Thank God, I don't need to go," Ravi mumbled to himself, caressing his pounding heart.

Sameera took his other hand in hers and squeezed it reassuringly. She didn't question him about anything knowing he needed some time to settle his heart.

Sameera wanted to ask him whether he would find the courage to go back on fields ever again, but she kept quiet. There was a time for everything and now wasn't the time to poke him about it.

It was just yesterday, when Sameera found out from Kriti's mother that Ravi hadn't gone out except for the hospital visits. He was scared to go back. To face the world when he wasn't the same.

Sameera mentally decided to first make Ravi comfortable enough to get out of the house and then slowly work upon his courage to join his team back on the fields.

Ravi looked at the silent Sameera, wondering whether she would look down upon him for getting so scared to go out and work, especially when his team member was overworked. But he found nothing but understanding in her eyes.

"Can you tell me more about your work?" Sameera inquired, thinking that asking something he was passionate about would bring him out of the shell. "And also about the blunder," she piped up, as soon as Ravi opened his mouth to speak.

"Here I thought you were trying to calm me down. However, you just want gossip."

"Well, I won't exactly deny it," Sameera said cheekily, to extend the teasing mood that had been created.

"Speak now," she demanded, eager to know more about him and his work.

"We make documentaries. You know, about the problems that people face in society or if someone has done noble work and so on. Right now, a major responsibility has fallen upon us as communications are haywired.

"People are finding it hard to communicate their needs as everyone doesn't have resources. Network is down in many areas. Electricity problems are also critical.

"So now it is our duty to go to the public and the non- profit organizations. The bigger authorities and the rich people have access to facilities. They will get our footage and work on the problems as much as they can."

"Wow!" Sameera was spellbound. She didn't know that Ravi was working on such a great deed.

"Yeah, but there's a huge complication. We can't have anything edited. They want the exact version in the documentaries. And that's where my team member committed a huge mistake."

"What happened?" Sameera asked gently, as she saw Ravi getting worked up.

"My team member had gone to a village and had already documented everything. Along with her camera, the footage of her dog's camera was also going to be sent as he had roamed all around the village, getting snippets of daily life.

"People usually get conscious when in front of a camera, so we decided to use the camera she had installed for his safety. However, I found that she had deleted some parts of the feed, just before we were going to upload it."

"Was there something important she deleted?" Sameera asked, thinking something fishy must have been caught in that video.

"She claims that it was something personal and not related to the documentary," Ravi answered with a sigh.

"And you don't believe her," Sameera stated in a questioning tone.

"It doesn't matter if I believe her or not. If someone finds out later that a part of the video was deleted then we will be disbarred from our work. The only conclusion that would come out would be that we deleted something that could have changed the whole meaning behind the words of villagers. You know, like changing the entire narrative by taking out a part of a sentence. 

"Let me give you an example, umm, let's say, if I said that you won't be getting any food tonight, because we are out of food items and there's a ban on going out at night. So let's wait until morning. What will happen if you tell others that I told you that you won't be getting any food tonight. Just that, nothing else."

Sameera pondered before exclaiming in shock, "That will change the whole effect. It would be like you aren't giving me food out of spite or as a punishment for something I did."

"Exactly!" Ravi nodded, showing what happened.

"Gosh! You must have been in a lot of trouble," Sameera commented, feeling bad for him.

"Well, we had to cancel the entire project. And now we are bustling our asses to cover up the wasted time and submit something."

"Your team member must have received a lot of curses," Sameera remarked, feeling bad for the unknown person. "But I heard you saying that you didn't suspend her."

"Ah yes!" Ravi pulled a pillow. Putting it on his lap, he rested his elbows on him, before continuing the conversation. "I thought it would be better to punish her in a way that would help her understand her mistake and become more responsible. Hence, she is leading the whole operation we have started for the NGO's."

"Oh oh! I know this technique. My orphanage used this. They used to make the naughtiest kid as the monitor. I think this is something like that," Sameera said excitedly, feeling as if she solved the biggest puzzle.

"Yes," Ravi laughed, his heart getting fuzzy with Sameera's happiness. "And it worked fabulously. She was the one who gave us the idea of going live. That way there would be no suspicion of the video getting edited," Ravi added, making Sameera beam at him.

"That's really nice. I hope this project works out. But remember to give her some breaks. Punishment or not, she is a human at the end."

Ravi nodded dutifully, before he remembered the time for Sameera's lessons had passed by.

"What a naughty student!" He pulled her cheeks as if she was a small mischievous child.

Sameera rubbed her cheeks, scowling at him. But her anger didn't last long when she saw him mimicking her actions.