Cheeru: a story of how a torn photograph repays a lifetime of debt

The box landed on the floor with a thud. “Careful!” Meenakshi cautioned Shiva, her twenty something son, as he jumped down from the step ladder. Before he could reach to the lowermost rung, his feet had slipped, so he had let go the box.

“What’s there in it? Hope it is unbreakable,” he said with a scowl.

“Whatever it is, we just won’t have space for it at the new place,” Meenakshi replied.

Shiva tore open the carton box. It was stuffed with some old sarees. “Are these yours?” he asked his mother.
She took one look at them. “Yes, my wedding sarees.” Her eyes glazed over for just a second and then she went back to packing her motley bunch of kitchen utensils into cartons.
“Don’t you need these?” Shiva asked, with a mild surprise.
“No, I don’t need them. Not going to help us, are they?”

They heard…