Locking up this Indian couple, the Chandrashekhars in Norway for over a year each because they supposedly whupped their kid is laughable to most of us.

There has to be some sense in all this. You can give the parents community service or something but not jail sentences that destroy the family forever. This is not justice. None of us condone child abuse and, in fact, the punishment for anyone who targets a child needs to be severe. But if this Norway thing is the yardstick I think 390 million Indian parents should be on their way to a padded cell.

Indian parents, especially from the south are mildly paranoid about how their kids do in school and if the kid is getting out of hand, he gets larruped. It is all to do with love and caring, something the icy and over righteous Norwegians do not understand.

You are not protecting the kid, you are helping him become a brat. Don't mix this up with genuine child abuse or assault or bodily harm or paedophilia, those are another story entirely. This is to my mind simple parenting.

I don’t know if they really put a hot spoon against a child’s leg but a good rap wasn’t very far away for any of us when we misbehaved. And the hot spoon could be an accident when the kid is driving parents up the wall.

I am not making light of it, I am just trying to put it into perspective. By their system all my teachers from 1955 onwards should get at least ten years each for the whacks across the palm. Mr Bentinck of Sherwood College, Naini Tal should get life without parole for the many six of the bests across the butt as any public school guy will tell you was the usual  Penalty (you Dosco/Mayo/Lovedale types listening) and Mrs Donaghue of Class V Section C who slapped me regularly across the face for being a naughty little boy could be sent to the tower, locked up and the key thrown away.

From what I read these are normal Indian parents. Not just Indian but anywhere in the world, kids get a whack now and then. You don’t send Mum and Dad to jail. For eighteen months as felons. That is nuts.

While I am writing this my daughter has just put my granddaughter in the corner for touching a glass figure on the table. She is two and has to stand facing the corner for three minutes until she says, sorry Mama.

If you were in Norway, you’d get five, I say and if Karan (son-in-law) can just rap her on the wrist we could send you to Oslo and get a package deal and then we’d have our granddaughter to ourselves instead of these measly twice a week visits. Ha, that’s a thought.

Oh come on, we got our punches and we haven’t grown up any the worse for it…some of these kids, they need more than just a whack. This is justice with a vengeance.