Ravi Ila Bhatt
In a busy little mohalla (neighborhood), lived a sweet boy named Rohan. Rohan had bright eyes and a quick smile, but he also had a big, secret problem: an enormous, fiery Gussa Monster lived right inside his tummy!
When the Gussa Monster woke up, Rohan’s face would turn red, and he would shout words that were sharp like tiny, broken glass. He called his friends bad names, scolded the neighbor's kids, and even yelled at the dogs!
Rohan's loving Papa and Mummy were full of chinta (worry). Rohan’s friends used to run away like startled sparrows whenever they saw him, because even though Rohan forgot the angry words quickly, his friends still felt the sting.
Papa tried everything to calm the Gussa Monster, but nothing worked. Finally, Papa came up with a very clever idea.
One morning, Papa handed Rohan a heavy cloth potli (bag) full of long, shiny iron nails.
"Rohan, listen carefully," Papa said, pointing to the old wooden fence by the mango tree. "Every single time your Gussa Monster wakes up and you shout a sharp word, you must take one nail and hammer it deep into that fence."
Rohan found this a bit silly, but he agreed.
On the very first day, the Gussa Monster woke up 30 times! Rohan was so angry he had to hammer thirty nails. Thak! Thak! Thak! His little arm ached. He realized hammering was much harder work than just shouting.
Soon, Rohan started fighting the Gussa Monster. He learned that taking a deep breath was much, much easier than running to the fence with a hammer. Slowly, the number of nails dropped: 15, then 5, then 2...
And then, one magical day arrived: Rohan did not hammer a single nail!
He ran to Papa, beaming like the sun. "Papa! Papa! It's been days! The Gussa Monster is asleep, and I haven't used any nails!"
"That is wonderful, my son," Papa smiled. "Now, for the next part. Every day you are kind, you must pull one nail out of the fence."
Rohan excitedly started pulling the nails. They came out with a little 'clink!' sound. In a few days, he had pulled out almost all of them. But there were still a few nails that had bent and were stuck deep inside the wood.
Rohan showed the fence to Papa. "Look, Papa! Most are gone, but these few won't budge."
Papa put his arm around Rohan's shoulders and pointed to the wall, not at the bent nails, but at the empty space around them.
"Look closely, beta," Papa said softly. "What do you see?"
Rohan replied, sadly, "I see the empty nail holes. Big, dark scars in the wood."
"Exactly," Papa said. "The nails were your angry words. You can pull the words back, and you can say 'Sorry'—that's like removing the nail. But the holes, those scars—they stay on the wood, just like they stay on the hearts of your friends."
Papa knelt down. "Rohan, you can stop the angry words, but you can never make the wood look new again. Your voice is a gift, and your words should be like sweets and gentle hugs. Use them to build up your friends, never to punch holes in their hearts."
Rohan looked at the fence, then at his hands, and understood the lesson of the scars forever.
The Moral of the Story
Words are like nails: Once they are spoken in anger, they leave a permanent scar. Always choose golden, kind words! g
