By Dur Wali Khan
There is a famous saying that “a negative mind/company never gives you a positive life.” No doubt, home environment/society and company play an important role in shaping the life of a child.
Douglas says, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.” I am going to share a shocking story with the readers that how an unfriendly home environment turns a well-behaved child into a notorious criminal. No doubt, in the absence of love, care and friendly environment, life becomes miserable.
There was a person (painter/musawir) who always used to be curious to explore the beauty of nature. So, he remained busy in search of beautiful things to draw their pictures and placed them in a room spared for this purpose. He enjoyed making it his routine practice in his life. He was so excited that he spent his entire life in collection of pictures of beautiful things, such as beautiful places, mountains, trees, buildings, animals, birds, stones, men, women, children, valleys, springs, rivers etc.
He always deemed himself to be a successful person, who made beautiful collections of each and every things. People loved visiting his house to enjoy his beautiful collections.
One day, he felt that the picture of angel was missing from his collections. So he came out in search of the angel to draw his picture and place it in his room. Of course, it was impossible to find an angel, but he decided to find a good person, who behaves like an angel, because in his point of view people with good qualities were like an angel.
One day on his way out, he saw a few children playing in the street and he observed that the youngest child among them was behaving quite differently. The child helped aged people cross the road, gave path and facilitated women, and when children fought each other, he resolved their differences, etc. He observed the child for a few days and interacted with him to know the reasons behind his well-behaved, positive response and good manners.
Because, he was very impressed with his sound behaviour towards others with respectful manners and having so many good qualities, he declared him an angel.
So, he decided to get permission to draw his picture. He drew his picture and wrote on the top of the picture as an angel and placed it in his room.
After passage of 10 to 15 years, he felt that the picture of devil/satan was missing from his collections. He decided to visit the central jail to find a person who could behave like a devil because in his point of view those who got involved in criminal activities were followers of the devil/satan.
So, he met the superintendent of the jail and asked him to provide him a list of prisoners to enquire about the reasons behind their involvement in criminal activities. He got the list and desired to meet a prisoner who was involved in many murder cases, bank robberies, kidnapping and many other criminal cases. He declared the prisoner as a devil/satan because of his unbelievable criminal activities and met him to know the reasons behind his involvement in criminal activities.
The prisoner told the whole story of his involvement in criminal activities that he was very well behaved child and followed good manners due to the nice training and teachings of his parents. That was the reason, people called him an angel. But, unfortunately, his mother passed away soon and his father got a second marriage and the home environment became unfaviourable and unfriendly for his personality development and character building.
He was compelled to leave his home in a very early age and joined the company of such bad people accidentally who encouraged him to do the same what they were doing.
As a result, he got involved in criminal activities and was put in jail. Now he realized that how environment/society damages the life of a person.
No doubt, bad company spoils good behaviours of a child. Frustration and ignorance compel the child to join such company, which ruins his life and happiness. There is a famous saying that “a man is known by the company he keeps.”
The artist personally felt that the prisoner was really the follower of devil/satan so he sought permission from the prisoner for drawing his picture for record. He drew his picture and wrote on the top as the devil/satan and placed it in his room.
After the passage of many years, the artist was going to market when he met an old man with a smiling face and asked him for having a cup of tea with him. The old man accepted the offer and he left for his house with him. After reaching his home, he asked the old man for having a seat in his guest room where he had decorated his paintings of various beautiful objects/things. The artist went to his kitchen for ordering tea. When he came back to his guest room, he was surprised to see the old man standing with the pictures of angel and devil and having tears in his eyes. He was shocked to see him in such upset condition. He desired to know the reason behind his sadness.
The old man told him the whole story and said the picture of the angel was his own which was taken by you (painter) when he was a child and his parents were alive.
Parents loved and cared him very well. His home environment was very friendly for healthy growth and he behaved well with everyone and the people called him angel. That is why after drawing my picture you wrote angel on the top of my picture. Unfortunately, my mother passed away soon and my father got second married. My step mother was so cruel that she made my life miserable and my father seemed to be helpless in front of her.
Due to unfriendly home environment, I left home and joined such companies, which badly affected my life. I was sent to central jail because of criminal cases, where you interviewed me and drew my picture and wrote devil on my picture. This made me so sad that how unfortunate was I that when my parents were alive I was considered to be angel by the people like you, but later on, my mother passed away and father became helpless as a result, I suffered a lot due to unfriendly environment and bad company, I was declared as a devil/satan.