Kindness
When my daughter was a young school going kid, we lived a pretty nomadic life, moving places almost every year and consequently changing neighbourhoods and schools. My biggest concern during all these moves was how she was adjusting with the new classmates, how the new teachers were and how she would build bonds with the new neighbourhood children. Most times she would allay my fears holding my face in her tiny hands and say that, "They are kind". That was her way of reassuring me that all's right with the moves and all's right with the world. Over the years, this became the benchmark to gauge any new scenario, whether it was a new hostel, new college, new internship, new job et al. Every new situation she found herself in, I always asked her teasingly, "Are they kind?!" This was mostly always in jest from the time she entered her teens and she would roll her eyes sometimes or laugh self-consciously! They say children know instinctively how the people aroun...