In 2026, questions the young should ask themselves

Next year you will step into ninth grade, and with that step begins a long corridor marked Class 10, 11, 12… and then, perhaps, engineering, medicine, law, academics, research, the civil services, or paths we have not yet named. Your childhood habits and laughter will still walk beside you, but soon the echoes of syllabus, results, percentages and comparisons will start interrupting your days.

As a father, and sometimes a teacher, I want you to know this: I am happy to walk a few extra miles quietly with you. Not ahead of you, not to pull you back, but alongside.

So, in the spirit of Socratic wisdom, I leave you with questions. In searching for their answers, you may begin to understand your own becoming.

What should be our habits? What kind of person do you wish to remain? What will be your values? Why do we need to study? Is it worth it to remain a good human being?

Habits quietly decide both the present and the future. What you eat, how you sleep, how you speak, how long you stay online — all these count. Try to build habits that do not live only inside a phone. Play a little. Read books that are not in the syllabus, and slowly frame the syllabus of your life.

Travel with your sister, parents and grandparents. Travel is not only about places; it is about shared happiness. One day, a photograph of you and your sister in a park near mountains and rivers will mean more than you imagine today. So will a smiling picture with your parents, and one enlarged lovingly for your grandparents. Staying healthy is also a habit. So is caring for the body your parents gave you.

As for the second question, remember your personality is shaped by your virtues. Virtues are the quiet gravity of a person. Truthfulness, the courage to recognise wrong, respect for time, and self-discipline. These decide who you are. Keep a capital “NO” for what is wrong. Right is what you can share without fear with your parents, sister, grandparents and juniors. Wrong is what you would never want to pass on. And “not right” is that dangerous space justified by “only once”. Your ability to tell these apart will become your identity.

The third question is harder in a noisy world. Society will measure you by money, position, and brands. Measure yourself by values. Trust, care and courage will shape your worth. Trust makes you reliable. Care allows you to change lives through action. Courage grows only in those who care. Even the Avengers, after all, need a moral compass.

Now the fourth question. Education is not merely an exam or a race. It is an opportunity. Not everyone gets books, uniforms, classrooms, teachers, PTMs, or even a school ID. Study hard, not just for yourself but also for those who never got this chance. Read everything.

Before the fifth question, remember this one word: Sangat — association. Habits lead to virtues, virtues to values, values to ethics, and ethics return us to habits. Choose your company wisely; happiness follows quietly. Many of those who follow you on Insta may not even exist. To answer the fifth, you must remember the letter I once wrote to your sister. She asked me, “Who is a good person?” I told her: A good person helps without hesitation, avoids arrogance and jealousy. It’s hard to do — that’s why a good person is never weak. From Vivekananda to Gandhi, goodness walked hand in hand with courage.

Your sister has framed my letter to her on her wall. You may place this one beside it. Think of your father as a wall, too, standing firm, plain, but soft enough to hold you both.

This is my Happy New Year note to you. I seek comfort in the fact that it echoes the note from all parents to all their children, written and unwritten, texted on phones or kept in the heart.

The Prime Minister reminded the nation, in his first year as PM, that we must speak to our sons rather than lecture our daughters. You may already know far more than I did at 14; this may well sound like an old man’s rant. If so, forgive me. Fathers are allowed one or two.

Nilay is the author of Being Good, Aaiye, Insaan Banen and Ethikos. He teaches and trains courses on ethics, values and behaviour