Bedtime stories for kids

A lesson learnt the hard way

Rachana and Jyothi were friends for about 6 years now. Since Rachana and her husband were both working and Jyothi was a home maker, Rachana used to leave her 10 year old son, Ashish, in Jyothi's house after school. This has been the arrangement for about 2 years now and Rachana was paying Jyothi for caring for her son. Ashish was happy staying at Jyothi's house as he had a friend Manoj, almost his age there. He enjoyed playing with Manoj.

Rachana wound up her work as soon as possible and tried to make it at Jyothi's house by 6:30 PM. As soon as she reached, Jyothi complained to Rachana about Ashish's behavior. Ashish had apparently hit Manoj in a fit of rage when an argument broke between them as to who should play the video game. Manoj was bleeding on his forehead and was right now fine as Jyothi nursed him with the first aid. The matter was not that serious but Jyothi made it very clear to Rachana that she cannot risk keeping her son with Ashish as the frequency of their fights were increasing day by day.

Rachana apologized Jyothi for Ashish's behavior and brought him back home. Though Rachana was mad at Ashish, she decided not to pour out her frustration and humiliation on him but to discuss with him as to what lead him to behave in such a reckless manner. "Ashish, please come and sit beside me", She called Ashish calmly. Ashish reluctantly went and sat beside his mother. Rachana asked, "Ashish, isn't Manoj your best friend? Don't you know Jyothi aunty takes care of you in my absence? How could you do what you did today?"

Ashish kept his head down and remained silent. Rachana continued, "Ashish, should I take your silence as you are guilty or you have anything to say in your defence?" Ashish slowly lifted his head and said, "I'm not going to their house again. I will never again play with Manoj. I hate him. We are friends and how could he play the video game for 10 minutes and give me for only 5 minutes? That's not fair. All this wouldn't have happened if you had bought me the video game. I wouldn't have had to go to his house and play. It's all your fault". Ashish started crying bitterly. Rachana kept quiet that day as anything she would say at that point of time would only make Ashish angrier.

Rachana had observed that Ashish was crazy for playing racing games on her Mobile or play station that Manoj had. She had purposely postponed buying games for him. Since it was a weekend, Rachana and her husband decided to take Ashish to Nandi hills along with his cycle. Ashish was silent the whole ride and didn't even show any interest as to why they were taking cycle along with them. They parked the car at the foot of the hill in parking lot and took out the cycle. She called Ashish and said, "Ashish winning the race in video games is not the same as the real race. Leave the virtual world and lets now get real. You need to cycle to the top of the hill in 45 minutes. Become the real hero. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the top of the hill in car. You have 45 minutes to complete this track in cycle".

Ashish thought of this as a bad idea and argued with his parents for a while. He finally agreed to the challenge when his capability was questioned. He initially thought he could do it and started off with a positive attitude. But after about 10 minutes of cycling the inclined road, he started sweating profusely and he had not even completed 4 curves. He finally reached the top by taking too many breaks in between and completed the journey in 1 hour 45 minutes.

Though Ashish was extremely tired at the end of the journey, he was feeling a kind of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment within him. He was not angry on his parents anymore. He apologized to his parents for putting them in the awkward situation and thanked them for making him realize that reality is far more interesting and challenging than the virtual world. He promised his parents that he would never again develop obsession for video games and would also apologize to Jyothi aunty and Manoj.

From then on, Ashish and Manoj became very good friends again and started playing more outdoor games than video games.