Page 55 - Non-violence and peace-building

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Communal Egos and

Inter-Community Conflict

here was once a man who was very strict with his
Tchildren. He used to constantly scold them. No one
had ever heard him speaking kindly with them. His
children were so terrified of him that they did not have
the courage to even open their mouths in front of him.
As soon as he entered the house, they would fall silent
and run away.

One day, the man climbed up to the terrace of his
house. When he got there, he saw, to his shock, one of
his sons perched high up on an electric pole. The boy’s
kite had got stuck on the electrical wire and he was
trying to get it down by climbing the pole. As soon as
the boy saw his father, he was terrified. But, instead of
shouting at the boy as he normally did, the man spoke
to him very gently.
“Son, what are you doing there?” he asked. Then,
very lovingly, he requested the boy to slowly climb down
the pole.
Later, the man related this incident to somebody,

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