The Lesson Learned
Rohan, a sweet young boy with a beautiful mind and friendly nature, lived in Delhi with his parents. He was best at everything he ever did and was one of the most popular students at school. Proud of all his achievements, his parents never said NO to him for anything.
As he grew up, his nature turned to be of a self-boasting boy who cared for nothing. He started to question everyone and became outrageous if someone questioned him back. First, his parents ignored the change, but they felt the need to obstruct when this became a habit.
“What should we do now? Rohan now is only not listening to us but is now disrespectful of everyone. We need to do something else and there will be trouble in future.” expressed Mrs Mehra out of worry. Mr Mehra knew they had to do something quickly. After thinking a lot, he came up with an idea.
They bought a parrot for Rohan as his 11th birthday present. The parrot was cute, sweet, and intelligent. Additionally, the parrot can learn and speak like humans. Rohan was so happy to see the parrot, and soon enough, he started taking care of him on his own.
The parrot sat in the cage beside the balcony of Rohan’s room. A few days passed by, and something unexpected happened. Rohan used to barge in whenever he was angry and shout at the peak of his voice.
Today, he was a bit late in feeding the parrot. Soon enough, the parrot started imitating Rohan and shouting at him. Rohan was upset to see this and was feeling disheartened. He did everything to keep the parrot happy, bought him fruits, played with him, and even kept him out of the cage during the day. He never thought that one day, the parrot would treat him like this.
Rohan burst out into tears and went downstairs to his parents. Seeing him cry, parents knew what possibly could have happened. He explained every single detail to them and sobbed.
“See, parrot is so mighty. He is the only bird that can speak like us. He is beautiful and perfect and so he was unhappy when you were late for once. Also, when we forget to give you something on time or question you, even you shouted like that. So, the parrot thought he was right to do so.” explained Mrs Mehra calmly, while Mr Mehra nodded in acceptance.
Rohan raised his eyes and looked at his parents. He understood what his parents meant. He went back to the room and apologized to his parrot for teaching him wrong and promised his parents to change his ways from the same day.
Moral:
Sometimes lessons are learned the hard way. While you try to teach kids some important life lessons, scolding or shouting is never the solution. Instead, following the idea of “looking in the mirror” will help kids learn the basic life lessons and help remember them for life.
Rohan, who always thought he was the best when looked his behavior imitated by the parrot, was stunned. He not only realized his mistake but also immediately moved forward to amend his ways from day one.
The lesson of being polite and respectful was learned, maybe in a hard way, but it is sure to be with him for his entire life.