“I don’t have any stories for you today”, the Mother told the child, “You have been behaving very selfishly and inappropriate since the past week, so no stories for you from now on.” She looked at the child, who now had a puppy-like face, imploring her to read a story.

“Mom you are so mean. Why can’t you tell me a story? You tell me one every day. I can’t go to sleep without hearing a story! Mommy!”, cried the child as she pulled at her Mother’s dress when she was standing up.

“No Laila!”, her mother shouted, “You don’t know how to act in front of others or respect your elders. You need to go back to the starting of yesterday and remember what all you have been doing wrong all this time. I am sure you will realize, so tell me what it is, and I will forgive you. If you can’t realize, then I am sorry.”

Laila looked at her, punched her dress that she had been holding and shouted, “Go away. Idiot!”. Hearing that, the Mother became furious and shouted “Laila! Stop and Go to sleep. Right Now!” and she hurried outside the room.

Once outside, she couldn’t hold her tears. She could still hear Laila’s voice from inside, “Yes! Fine! I am going to sleep! Go to hell Mom!” The Mother just stood still outside the door, put her ears to the door. She could hear a faint sobbing, and after five minutes, nothing.

Laila has probably gone to sleep, she thought, why does she behave like that? What has come into her? Did I not raise her correctly? Did I spoil her too much? When will she understand that she needs to respect others? Perhaps I need to be stricter with her from now on so she can mature into a beautiful woman with a good personality. But I need to be strict with her, thinking this made her heart tight, that is the most appropriate thing to do if I need her to have a better future.

She walked back to her own room, so as to go sleep but ended up reading a story to herself, as tears rolled down her eyes.

-Siddarth