Danial was an 11-year-old boy, who happened to be quite the ‘gamer’ amongst all his siblings. He was the youngest child of his very well-educated parents, who always endorsed good things to their kids, but their way of endorsement was often ineffective in case of Danial. His elder siblings, however, paid attention to whatever their parents advised them about.

So, poor Danial never really understood why his parents said whatever they had said. He never understood why his parents would always frown when he played games on his PC. The pandemic seemed like the best time for all gamers around the world because they were getting a lot of free time due to the lockdown.

Danial’s parents always told him to study whenever they saw him playing games, though Danial would study prior to playing games on his PC. Danial was always so interested in playing games on his PC during his free time that he did not bother to ask his parents about a supposed alternative to this activity of his.

One fine day, there was power outage where Danial. It made Danial feel bored. He did not have any laptop to play his beloved games on, and he had done his schoolwork immediately after he got off from his online classes. So, such a situation left Danial with nothing but a curiosity that was arising in him for quite some time. And so, he went to his mother, who was then reading something from her large collection of books, in their home library. He asked her what can he do after studying.

His mother made him sit with her as she said to him, “I want you to divide your time wisely, and to adapt to habits which would have a better and positive effect in your life, like reading, drawing or anything productive.” Danial listened to her advice careful.

The next day, Danial’s mother was taken aback when she saw him in their home library, seated on the couch, whilst he tried his best to read ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, out loud. She saw how he was trying his best to read, though it was hard for him to pay attention to the paragraphs written in the book because he was not used to reading.

She smiled and left the room, only to bring her son’s favourite sandwiches for him. She kissed Danial on the forehead and applauded him for the small, but important step that he had taken to improve his life, for his own sake, through his change of habits.

So, in a matter of three short weeks (from Danial’s perspective, of course), the boy finished reading the first part of the Harry Potter book series. It contained around 234 pages – he had never read a book that long!

After that, he started to read the second part of the same book series. It took him another month to finish the 260 pages worth of ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. Danial told his family about his achievement and his family applauded and appreciated him.

It was not like Danial had not been playing games on his PC. He was actually playing regularly and even got much better at playing those games. The difference now was that Danial’s mind did not become exhausted from constantly playing. He had wisely divided his time of attending online classes, studying his subjects, playing games on his PC, reading a few pages of a book each day, and to lend help to his family members whenever he is free.

This change brought upon a huge, yet positive, impact on his life. Danial was now more thoughtful, much active and quite understanding too. Following his mother’s advice regarding time management, and starting his journey with the habit of reading, was the best decision that Danial had made. Through all the books that he had read that year, in the pandemic, Danial had gained tonnes of knowledge, his imagination had grown and his language skills were being polished side by side.

Danial got to have a little bit of everything that he liked each day, and that was what made him happier and more content with himself. His personality also got polished through this change. So, by the end of the school year, Danial had become a popular personality in their online classes, because of how attentive, responsive and intelligent he had become, through the effect of his habits.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 21st, 2021