Rodrick’s father was a very strict man. He would run his house on strict discipline. An inch of deviation and the deviating person would have to face his ire. Now Rodrick was his darling son but Mathew (Rodrick’s father) was stricter with him as Rodrick was a growing kid and he felt the children who are growing up need more discipline and regularity in their work and life.
The rules which Rodrick had to follow were:-
*Getting up at 5:00 am early in the morning.
*Doing exercises for about an hour.
*Then performing the Surya Namaskar.
*Before going to school revising what had been taught the previous day.
*After coming home from school, an hour of sleep.
*Two hours continuous study and then playing in the evening for an hour.
*Watching on T.V. for thirty minutes.
*Computer games for thirty minutes.
*Then again study for two hours.
*Have dinner.
*Read story books for thirty minutes.
*The go to bed at 10:30 pm.
This was Rodrick’s daily routine without a variation.
With that there were few other rules also. Rodrick couldn’t have chocolates, ice creams in which chocolate was present and any chocolaty food. This was his father’s rule.
On the other hand Rodrick loved having chocolates. His heart would go out to the chocolates but he was helpless. In this matter of chocolates, Rodrick’s mother was his best friend. She understood that he liked chocolates, so she would take him on shopping trips and would buy him big chocolate bars and Rodrick had to finish up the bar of chocolate before reaching home. She would tell him-“Finish it up quickly, don’t take it home.” Rodrick would listen to her like an obedient child.
Even at school whenever somebody would give him a toffee or a chocolate, he would have it in the tiffin break.
It was a sad situation for him.
One day Rodrick was playing in the evening with a tennis ball which he used to carry with him to school. His mother had bought him two tennis balls. So he had kept one in the drawer and the other was the one with which he was playing. That night he went to sleep without putting the ball back into the bag. At nearly twelve when he woke up as he was feeling restless, he remembered that he had forgotten to keep the ball back into the bag. When he got up, he could hear television sounds. He knew that his father used to watch late night movies, so he didn’t bother. When he was searching for the ball, he came near the drawing room and heard the sound of something being unwrapped. He took a peep from behind the curtains (he didn’t the have the courage to look directly inside the drawing room where his father was watching the television) and what did he see? He saw his father unwrapping a cadbury chocolate bar. He couldn’t believe his eyes, so he took a closer look and he clearly saw his highly strict father taking a big bite of the chocolate bar.
Rodrick immediately rushed to his mother, woke her up and took her to the drawing room.
On seeing her husband amazingly eating chocolate, she thought that she was dreaming, but when she saw him taking bites after bites she realized that she was not dreaming.
She entered the room. Her husband, who upon noticing his wife and son in the room, looked very startled. She asked him-“You are eating chocolates? You always advise us not to eat chocolates and yet you are eating chocolates like a school kid.”
Mathew-“I was hungry. So I was eating it. Today in my office, a colleague gave us all a bar of chocolate each as his son had scored well in the exams.”
His wife-“So? It’s your rule that chocolates are bad for teeth, then how can you break it when we all follow it religiously.”
Mathew-“For eating chocolates, you need strong and mature teeth, which only I have.”
His wife-“That’s plain hypocrisy. I know that when you were little you had lost two of your teeth to cavities due to eating chocolates, yet you deviate from your own law.”
Mathew-“See that’s the reason I strongly say no to chocolates.”
His wife-“Yet at midnight you are eating it. From today onwards there shall be no ban on chocolates. My son can have atleast half a bar of chocolate everyday and I shall take care, that he doesn’t develop cavities.”
Mathew knew he was defeated, so he regained his role as the head of the family and in a solemn and strict voice-“Do as you please, but please let me watch the remaining part of the movie in peace.”
Rodrick hugged his mother, for he knew that from that day onwards, no one would stop him from eating chocolates at his home and Rodrick’s mother was also very happy, as she too liked chocolates and often thought of using them in her dessert dishes, but refrained from doing so as her husband had banned it.
The whispers said that even Mathew was happy as he too liked chocolates, but couldn’t eat them as he was afraid of his own built up rule.
After this Mathew became more of a friend to his son and their relationship was thousand times better and chocolaty.
Adios!
Before You Travel. 