It was the summer of 1928, when Jawaharlal Nehru began writing letters to his young daughter, Indira, who was in Mussoorie at that time. In the first letter, ‘Book of Nature’ , he talks about how life began in the universe. In the following letters, he speaks to his daughter on a wide range of topics, including languages, trade, history, geography, science, epics and evolution.
In 1973, Indira Gandhi wrote, “These letters aroused a feeling of concern for people and interest in the world around. They taught one to treat nature as a book. I spent absorbing hours studying stones and plants, the lives of insects and at night, the stars.”
Today, on the occasion of the 126th birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose birthday is also celebrated as the Children’s Day, here’s a letter he wrote to his daughter from the Naini Central Prison near Allahabad that gives us a peak into the man that Nehru was.