When a woman tells you ‘what?’, she is not asking you to repeat yourself. She is asking you to reconsider what you just said. Her tone implies that she is giving you one more chance. She is almost daring you to repeat yourself. It’s almost as if she is asking you to decide if you are stupid enough to bluntly repeat or smart enough to take back what you said. You could also apologise first before you change your words. When you are given a chance for repetition, it’s wise to think if it is worth repeating. 

Shivani sighed. She hated routine. And now she had joined this organization that required her to wear a uniform! What about her joy of dressing up! The office timings were 6am to 5:30 pm. So, she had to be out of bed by 5am. Cursing her plight she began work. But soon she realized the uniform was possibly the best thing. She woke up at 5:30am, showered and jumped into her uniform. As she was home by 6pm routinely, she had a lot of time to spend with her family. Maybe this routine is a good thing! 

Priya lived in a palatial house by the river. Her grandma had recently passed and left her an entire trunk of toys that once belonged to her. Priya was in the second grade. Her favourite class at school was English, where the teacher would always start with “Alright children, repeat after me…” and would go on to say verbs and nouns. Priya wanted to play teacher and arranged all her grandma’s old dolls in a line, and called out “Alright dolls, repeat after me… eating is a verb!”. The dolls repeated in unison “Eating is a verb!”