man is sensitive enough to respond to sweet words.

Yesterday I had been to the dentist. He took my money and a tooth and in return gave an excruciating pain. Next day in the morning, when I smiled in front of the mirror, I could see a side view of my buccal chamber through the newly formed gap. In the serially lined up white teeth, a member was missing. I resembled an old man. Instantly, I thought of my little baby who is yet to approach on earth. I wondered that she/he will initially express his joy in teeth less laughs and now I am slowly following his/her trail to do so. Smiling with no teeth!


Yesterday the dentist scolded me severely for tearing a part of his prescription. Unintentionally I had made the mistake. The situation was such that I urgently required a piece of paper to write down my Father’s in law bank account number. My wife was on the mobile. I was on the seat of my bike in the midst of heavy traffic and that prescription was the only available paper with me. Moreover, the dentist had left a considerable part of the prescription blank and I thought to use it.

Whatever may be, I admit that the dentist’s annoyance was justified because I had disrespected his profession but his reaction seemed to me an over dose. He became somewhat aggressive and flung hard words of admonition. I was pained but kept quite. At the very moment, his son who was sitting on the dentist’s lap started playing with the x-ray films of my ailing teeth. Suddenly I took notice of the situation and announced to the boy “Hey baby, don’t play with the x-ray films it is a disrespect to your Papa’s profession”. The doctor looked straight to me but I smiled internally because,”To err is human, to forgive is divine.” The dentist will not mind his son’s behaviour because his son is a part of him. However, he will not spare a patient because the patient is someone else to be admonished and prove doctor’s superiority. The life is like this. We derive pleasure when we crush somebody’s self-esteem.

The moral of the story is we all must be tolerant to other’s flaws and at the same time; we must use only the soft chords to bring a change and not hard words to teach a lesson.

As a teacher, I resolve to bring about changes in my students by the method of persuasion and not by punishment because man is sensitive enough to respond to sweet words.