I am feeling very anxious. My son has just returned from his school. It was his exam today. He just came and locked himself inside his room. Me and my wife were horribly worried. We just kept on banging the door. Finally after thirty minutes, he opened the door. His eyes were red and when my wife touched him; she realized that he was running with very high fever.

He was just crying and crying so much. While my wife was cuddling him, I made a glass of his favourite milk shake. Thankfully he drank the milkshake and felt better after drinking it.

It was then that he told us the entire thing. He told us that he was on his way to the school. He was happy and crossing the road when he suddenly saw a puppy lying on the middle of road. The puppy was dead. It was most probably hit by a speeding car. It was lying there on the middle of the road with his body parts strewn everywhere. My son told us that it was a scary sight and he became very upset about everything. He reached his school and sat for the exam. He tried very hard to concentrate on the questions but the sight of that puppy just troubled him so much. All the exam time passed- and he didn’t write a single answer in the answer sheet.

Oh God!!!!!! What should I do know? My little son is very upset. First it’s the puppy. He really loves animals.  He is simply not able to forget that sight. And secondly, he had prepared really hard for his exams. He is bright student and gets an A grade in every paper. And today he hasn’t written anything at all. Why this had to happen?

I don’t know what to say. Now everyone will judge my son by his marks. They will never know why he didn’t attempt the paper. He will flunk in his exam. They will all judge my son’s intelligence and capability on the basis of his score. All this is very bad. My son is lying on his bed pretending that he is sleeping. But I know that he is not sleeping. I know he is crying.

I must take your leave now. I am going in his room. Take care. Bye.

The ‘common man’ went in his son’s room and loved him so much. He explained to him how very often things don’t happen the way we want them to be. But we should learn lessons from everything and give our best. We should treat every setback as a stepping stone to next opportunity.