![]() ![]() ![]() How India as a nation has been implementing this principle in her business/ foreign relations. If everyone starts to ‘be the change’, then the problem seems very small and takes very less time to solve.Ģ. But ironically, nobody cleans their own premises as each of us think that it is someone else’s burden – which when extrapolated becomes a national problem. Nobody wants to live in unclean surroundings. This happens because everybody looks for someone to take charge of the things instead of acting themselves. To better understand how this quote is relevant at a societal level, we can consider two of the major debates in the national discourse: cleanliness, corruption. Similarly, a father who treats his wife with disrespect cannot expect his daughter to be treated with respect by others. If he starts being gentle to his fellow employees and subordinates, it will effect a positive change in the office gradually. Nor can he expect his superiors to be gentle with him. An employee who is rude to his subordinate cannot expect genuine respect from him. But, we fail to reflect on the kind of treatment we extend to others in our interactions. At a personal level, we expect others to treat us with respect and decency. This change we expect can be in two ways: a change that is beneficial at a personal level, or a change that effects the society. In this statement, the word ‘change’ takes a positive connotation. It also espouses the principle of leading by example. This quote implicitly emphasises a reflection on our own actions or behaviour before we judge others’. It means, the change we expect to see in others must begin with us. The man changed himself before he taught the child to change. It shows us the quote, “Be the change you want to see in others” in action. This story is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our nation. He said, “I cannot teach him what I do not myself follow”. Then he called the mother aside and said that he too had that habit of eating sugar and it took him four days to completely let go of it. It is not good.” The mother asked him why he needed four days to say these words. When she met him again, he called the child by his side and said, “Child, please stop eating sugar. She did not understand why but she obeyed. When she met him with her child after two days, he asked her to wait two more days. The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi. So she took him to an elderly neighbour and asked him to change this strange habit of her son. In the famous Salt March of April-May 1930, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmadabad to the Arabian Sea. His mother warned him many times that eating sugar is bad for teeth but he never listened. If you really want to have leadership influence, you have no choice but, as Gandhi, to be the change you want to see in others.There was once a boy who used to eat lot of sugar. “Ask only for others to do what you have done yourself first.” Sweets so long as I had not stopped either.” “Because,” replied Gandhi, “two weeks ago I was stillĮating sweets myself. “Why didn’t you just tell him that two weeks ago?” “That’s all you’re going to say?” She was flabbergasted. He looked the boy squarely in the eye and said, firmly, “Don’t eat sweets.” Gandhi, who reached out, put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, and pulled him closer. The boy, at the urging and prodding of his mother, disentangled himself from her sari and stepped up to “Come here, child.” He motioned the boy forward. ![]() “Yes, of course I remember,” said Gandhi. We came to you for help with this boy and eating sweets, and you asked us to come back after two weeks.” “Mahatma,” said the mother, “we have returned. Two weeks later the woman returned with her child and once again waited in line for hours before finally it was their turn to see the Master. Finally, Gandhi broke the silence and said, “Come back to me in two weeks’ time.” Confused, and a bit disappointed that he could not simply tell her son to stop eating sugar, the mother left with her son. Gandhi looked at the boy for a long moment as he cowered there, trying to hide in his mother’s sari. Finally, upon reaching Gandhis ashram, they found Gandhi himself standing there, and the mother explained, Bapu, my son eats too much sugar. He’s a good boy, but when it comes to sweets, he becomes a liar and a thief and aĬheat, and I’m afraid it will ruin his life. Every time he has sweets, I see the change in him, and there is nothing I can do to stop him from eating more and more. When at last it was her turn to speak to him, the woman said, “Mahatma, please. Whenever you ask someone to do or be anything, think of Mahatma Gandhi and the story of “The Little Boy and Sweets.” It is such a great example to live up to and delivers an invaluable lesson on the character ofĬoming to see Gandhi, a woman waited in line for more than half a day with her son at her side, in order to have an audience with him. ![]()
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