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thoughtless and conceited and she wondered why, at fifteen, he was so careless and evenself-cantered.If you observe your friends and look around a bit, you will come across many people,young and old who do not keep the promises they make and if you go into it further, youwill discover that a number of difficulties are caused because of this. That girl Lakshmifor instance, had recently promised her mother that she would enquire at the school officefor an application form for her brother’s admission to school, but she forgot to do so for awhole week. Her mother was furious. Lakshmi tried to justify herself needlessly and toldseveral lies in the bargain. Her mother was put to a lot of trouble and anxiety. She foundout that the last date for submission of forms was over and the boy had to wait for anothersix months to get a place and that too in another school! Sometimes it happens that awhole group of children in a class make a promise to their teacher which they do notkeep. Miss Susan Fernandes was an extremely hard-working teacher and expected thehighest standards of conduct from her students. She was the teacher for the seventh class.That day she had to attend a teachers’ meeting in the last period. She asked her class ofthirty, whether they would tidy up the classroom, put books and note-books away neatly,change the display on the notice boards, tidy up the room and arrange the furniture for theexhibition to be held the next day. She had made groups and told them what to do. Withone voice they had all promised that she need not worry, as it would all be done. Whenthe bell rang they did start to work together, but soon, it was evident that only one or twoin each group were serious. The others began to play or tease each other and made such anuisance of themselves that Ajit who was usually their natural leader, ordered them out.He was a very responsible boy and the class respected him. Apparently, most of thestudents were not serious when they promised their teacher that they would clean up theroom. They had spoken mechanically, thoughtlessly. If you watch yourself and thosearound you, you will notice that we do that too, many times.Of course many grown up people are equally careless about the promises they make.Take the mechanic, for instance, who promises to come in the morning to repair thewater-tap that is leaking and keeps you waiting the whole day; the young man whopromises to meet his friend at the market place at a certain time and forgets about it; orthe woman who promises to help and doesn’t turn up. The classical example, of course, isthat of some politicians who promise a hundred things like drinking water, better roads,schools, etc., to the poor, during election time and then do not keep any of them.On the contrary, take the case of mother, who almost always keeps her promises.Perhaps it is a small thing like making you some halwa or buying a shirt or a frock orhelping you with your home-work. If she is unable to do so she will say, “Sorry”, and notsay one thing and do another. Why is that so? Why are mothers generally careful aboutkeeping their promises? What is there so special about them? Could it be that they carefor you so much, they naturally do whatever they have said they would? And does thismean that people forget to keep their promises because they don’t care deeply enough?Or can it be that we often make promises to put an end to a problem? And also, perhaps,we don’t really mean what we say, so we do not feel compelled to keep our word. Therecould be many reasons why we do not keep promises. Find out what they could be.