It happened in a store in Chicago. My daughter, busy shopping, suddenly noticed her two-and-a-half-year-old happily munching away on an apple. The little one, with all the innocence in the world, had simply plucked it from the display. My daughter, instead of panicking or scolding, calmly explained at the counter what had happened.

The cashier smiled, rang it in, and even offered to slice it up for the tiny culprit, who beamed with joy at this unexpected kindness. Yes, what the little one did was technically wrong—but was it a crime? No. And most importantly, she was not made to feel like a criminal. No thunderous voice of anger descended on her head, no threats of punishment loomed over her. Instead, there was kindness, a gentle correction, and a chance to learn.

And isn’t that exactly what we need to do with our children?

We live in times when a child scribbles on a wall and gets shouted at as though she had spray-painted Parliament. Or when a boy sneaks a chocolate and is punished like he had looted the Reserve Bank. Parents forget that these little ones are still learning the boundaries of right and wrong. Their curiosity often spills over into mischief, but mischief is not malice. Mischief is childhood’s way of experimenting, of understanding the world.

Correct, yes. Condemn, no.

Because when we correct without crushing, we build children who grow up strong and confident. When we punish with understanding instead of humiliation, we raise men and women who believe in fairness, who can say sorry without shame, and who can forgive without hesitation. But if we treat them as hardened offenders, we risk producing adults who are either timid and afraid of the world, or ruthless and angry at it.

And here’s the larger point. Look around at our rulers today. See the lack of compassion, the absence of kindness, the cruelty that passes for strength. Leaders in our country who can walk out on wives, betray friends, or abandon the weak—yet still strut about hailed as noble!

Where do such leaders come from? They are not imported from China, nor manufactured in Russia. They were children once—children who may have been shouted into silence, scolded into hardness, never taught kindness by example.

If we in India want a future that is kinder, more just, more human, then it begins not in Parliament, nor in political manifestos, but in the homes where toddlers grab apples and mothers and those in authority choose how to respond.

The child who receives correction wrapped in kindness grows up to be a kind adult. And kind adults, multiplied across a nation, can diffuse the unkindness choking us today.

So, treat your children well, my friends. Correct them, yes, but don’t scar them. Teach them right, but teach with a smile. And who knows, maybe the little hand reaching for an apple today might tomorrow extend to heal a nation…!

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