Letter to Children

This is a letter written by India’s first prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, to children on account of the National Children’s day. Worth reading.

Dear Children,
I like being with children and talking to them and, even more, playing
with them. For the moment I forget that I am terribly old and it is very
long ago since I was a child.
But when I sit down to write, I cannot forget my age and the distance that
separates you from me. Old people have a habit of delivering sermons and
good advice to the young.
I remember that I disliked this very much long ago when I was a boy. So I
suppose you do not like it very much either. Grown-ups also have a habit
of appearing to be very wise, even though very few of them possess much
wisdom. I have not yet quite made up my mind whether I am wise or not.
Sometimes listening to others I feel that I must be wise and brilliant and
important. Then, looking at myself, I begin to doubt this. In any event,
people who are wise do not talk about their wisdom and do not behave as if
they were very superior persons...
What then shall I write about? If you were with me, I would love to talk
to you about this beautiful world of ours, about flowers, trees, birds,
animals, stars, mountains, glaciers and all the other beautiful things
that surround us in the world. We have all this beauty all around us and
yet we, who are grown-ups, often forget about it and lose ourselves in our
arguments or in our quarrels. We sit in our offices and imagine that we
are doing very important work.
I hope you will be more sensible and open your eyes and ears to this
beauty and life that surrounds you. Can you recognize the flowers by their
names and the birds by their singing? How easy it is to make friends with
them and with everything in nature, if you go to them affectionately and
with friendship. You must have read many fairy tales and stories of long
ago. But the world itself is the greatest fairy tale and story of
adventure that was ever written. Only we must have eyes to see and ears to
hear and a mind that opens out to the life and beauty of the world.
Grown-ups have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and
groups. They build barriers... of religion, caste, colour, party, nation,
province, language, customs and of rich and poor. Thus they live in
prisons of their own making. Fortunately,children do not know much about
these barriers, which separate. They play and work with each other and it
is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers
from their elders. I hope you will take a long time in growing up...
Some months ago, the children of Japan wrote to me and asked me to send
them an elephant. I sent them a beautiful elephant on behalf of the
children of India... This noble animal became a symbol of India to them
and a link between them and the children of India.
I was very happy that this gift of ours gave so much joy to so many
children of Japan, and made them think of our country... remember that
everywhere there are children like you going to school and work and play,
and sometimes quarrelling but always making friends again. You can read
about these countries in your books, and when you grow up many of you will
visit them. Go there as friends and you will find friends to greet you.
You know we had a very great man amongst us. He was called Mahatma Gandhi.
But we used to call him affectionately Bapuji. He was wise, but he did not
show off his wisdom. He was simple and childlike in many ways and he
lovedchildren... he taught us to face the world cheerfully and with
laughter.
Our country is a very big country and there is a great deal to be done by
all of us. If each one of us does his or her little bit, then all this
mounts up and the country prospers and goes ahead fast.
I have tried to talk to you in this letter as if you were sitting near me,
and I have written more than I intended.
Jawaharlal Nehru
December 3, 1949