My wife called, 'How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter, Sindu, looked frightened; tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with curd rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age.

I cleared my throat and picked up the bowl. 'Sindu, darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this curd rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear'.

Sindu softened a bit and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. 'Ok, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should...' Sindu hesitated. 'Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'

'Promise'. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal. Now I became a bit anxious. 'Sindu, dear, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. Ok?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'. Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity. I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child to eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her. 'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand.

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!'

'Never in our family!' My mother rasped. 'She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!'

'Sindu, darling, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'Please, Sindu, why don't you try to understand our feelings?' I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'. Sindu was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for. Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?'

It was time for me to call the shots. 'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out of your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on ourpromises, she will never learn to honour her own. Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Sinduja, please wait for me!' What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. 'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought.

'Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!' Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, 'that boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from... leukemia'. She paused to muffle her sobs. 'Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue. But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son!

Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.'

I stood transfixed and then, I wept. 'My little Angel, you are teaching me how selfless real love is!'

The happiest people on this planet are not those who live on their own terms but are those who change their terms for the ones whom they love !!

“我說你還要看多久報紙？能不能過來讓你的寶貝女兒將她的飯吃了”，我妻子喊道。

聽罷我趕緊將報紙丟在一邊跑了過去。我的獨生女兒Sindu看上去像被嚇著了；眼里淚如泉涌。她面前放著滿滿的一碗米糊糊。Sindu是個好孩子，在同齡的孩子當(dāng)中是相當(dāng)聰明的一個。

我清了清嗓門后拿起那碗米糊對女兒說“Sindu，我的寶貝兒，你為什么不吃幾口米糊呢？就算看在爸爸的份上，親愛的，”

Sindu這時有所緩和，用手背擦去眼淚，說“好吧，爸爸，我會吃的--不只是吃幾口，而是把所有的都吃完，但是，你得…”Sindu 停頓了一下?！鞍职郑绻野阉械拿缀汲酝炅?，我要什么你就會給我什么嗎？”

“我保證”。說著我用自己的手握住女兒伸過來的粉嫩的小手，算是達成了這樁交易。這時我有點忐忑不安了?！癝indu，親愛的，你別老是要一部電腦或是其它這么昂貴的東西，爸爸現(xiàn)在沒有那么多閑錢，好嗎？”

“不，爸爸，我不要什么昂貴的東西”。她一口一口地，飽含痛苦地將所有的米糊糊都吃完了。對于我母親和妻子強迫我女兒吃她不喜歡吃的東西這件事，我心中忿忿不平?？嚯y過后，Sindu睜大著滿是期盼的眼睛朝我走過來。這時所有的眼光都投向了她，她走到我跟前要求道：“爸爸，我想將頭發(fā)全部剃光，就在這個星期天剃”。

“這太殘忍了”我妻子大聲吼道“一個女孩子家家剃個光頭？不可能！”

“在我們的家里絕對不允許”我母親厲聲說到“她電視看得太多了。我們的文化因為這些電視節(jié)目正在變得腐化墮落！”

“Sindu, 寶貝兒，你為什么不要點別的什么呢？看著你腦袋光光的，我們會感到很難過的?！?/P>

“求你了，Sindu，請你試著理解一下我們的感受好不好？”我試圖央求她放棄。

“爸爸，你已經(jīng)看到了我吃完那些米糊糊有多么不容易”。Sindu淚流滿面“而且你答應(yīng)了我要什么就給什么?，F(xiàn)在你又反悔了。你不是跟我講過神王的故事嗎，而且還說不管在什么情況下都信守諾言是一種誠實的體現(xiàn)嗎？”

是時候該我拍板了?！拔覀冎g的諾言必須遵守”

“你是不是瘋了？”我母親和妻子不約而同地喊道。

“沒有，如果我們食言，她也就永遠不會知道信守她自己的諾言，Sindu，我們將滿足你的愿望。”

頭發(fā)剃光后，Sindu臉蛋顯得圓圓的，眼睛也看著又大又漂亮。

星期一的早晨，我送她上學(xué)?？粗忸^的Sindu向著教室走去別有一番味道。她回過頭朝我揮揮手，我也笑著和她招手。就在這時，一個男孩突然從一部車?yán)铩蹬R’，并喊道：“Sinduja，等等我！”讓我大吃一驚的是那個男孩也是一個光頭。我想“或許這才是女兒剃光頭的內(nèi)幕吧。”

“先生，您女兒真的是很了不起！”一位女士從車?yán)镒叱鰜?，也不介紹一下自己就接著說道“和您女兒一塊兒走著的男孩是我兒子，叫Harish。他得了…白血病?！彼ｎD了一下努力控制自己的悲傷情緒?！癏arish上個月整整一個月都沒法上學(xué)。因為化療的副作用，他的頭發(fā)掉光了，他拒絕回到學(xué)校，害怕同學(xué)們無意的但是卻很殘忍的嘲笑。”Sinduja上周來看望了他，并且向他許諾她會處理同學(xué)們嘲笑他這個事情。但是我萬萬沒想到她會因為我兒子而犧牲掉自己漂亮的頭發(fā)。

“先生，您和您的妻子跟你們的女兒一樣擁有如此高尚的精神，上帝會保佑你們的”

我站在那兒一動不動，接著眼淚奪眶而出“我的小天使啊，你這是在用實際行動告訴我怎樣才叫真正無私的愛”。

在這個世界上，最幸福的不是那些活在自己信條里的人，而是那些為了自己所愛的人而改變自己信條的人。

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