Hammer Your Anger

     Nikhil was like most 12-year-old boys - smart, talented and handsome. He got good marks in class, was a member of his school cricket team and was very focused in his studies. But despite these good traits, he was very selfish and struggled to keep a check on his anger. Nikhil was so difficult to deal with and would often use nasty and hurtful language, so much so that nobody wanted to be his friend.

Nikhil's parents were deeply concerned about this and knew that they desperately needed to find a solution. One day Nikhil's father, Mr. Kumar, had an idea; he called Nikhil and gave him a hammer and a bag of nails. Mr Kumar said, "Nikhil, every time you get angry, take a nail and hammer it as hard as you can into the ols wooden fence in the garden. Make sure the nail goes completely in to the fence." Nikhil reluctantly agreed to do it. he was also bit excited that he was given permission to hammer nails into wood. He thought it was going to be fun.

The wooden fence was very tough and hard, and the hammer proved to be very heavy to carry as well. Nevertheless, Nikhil was up to the task. The first day, he got angry numerous times. By the end of the day, he had droven 37 nails into the fence! Day after day and week after week, the number of nails Nikhil drove into the wooden fence gradually decreased. Eventually, he started to understand that controlling anger was easier than driving nails into the fence.

Soon, Nikhil didn't need a hammer and nails anymore as he had learnt to control his anger perfectly. He went to his father excitedly and told and told him about his feat. Mr Kumar was relieved but he had a few more tasks for Nikhil to do and said, "Now, every time you successfully control your anger for a full day, I want you to pull out one nail from the wooden fence." Nikhil didn't quite understand why his father was asking him to do that, but he agreed to do it thinking it would be fun to pull the nails out as well.

Weeks went by, finally Nikhil was able to pull out every nail from the wooden fence. He then went to his father with much happiness and told him about it. Mr Kumar went into the garden, took a careful look at the fence and said, "You did a good job Nikhil! But did you notice the holes all over the fence after you pulled out the nails. Doesn't it look ugly? The fence will never look the same!" Nikhil looked hard and long at the fence, and happiness disappeared from his face. Mr Kumar went on to say, "The same happens when you hurt someone. your harsh and angry words will leave scars in their hearts and minds just like the holes in this fence. Remember, we need to treat everyone with love and respect. Even though you might say sorry to them later, the scars you crated in them will never disappear."