This is a letter I wrote to my daughter and subsequently posted on my personal blog. I wrote this letter to teach her to value life, learning and wisdom more than material valuables. On her 2nd birthday I gave her the best gift I could have thought of. It was the gift of a promise to make myself a better and a more knowledgeable mother with each passing day.

I hope you remember your 2nd Birthday. If not I have documented some of it here. I had organized a minion party which was a huge hit. You and your friends had a great time. A lot of planning and organizing went into it. When all the arrangements were thought through and finalized I started to think about your gift. Clothes, shoes, toys, books, cycle, remote car, piano ….what could I buy you? Alhamdulillah ! you had these already….. Finally I bought ‘ Glimpses of World History – by Jawaharlal Nehru’. 

I ordered the book to office. When it got delivered my colleagues were surprised that this was a gift for you. They all said Zayb is too small to read this book. I understood what they meant but I did not order the book as a direct gift to you. My gift to you was the gift of a knowledgeable and wise parent. Only if I aimed at acquiring more and more knowledge and wisdom can I hope to raise you into a wise and intelligent human being. 

You may ask why didn’t I buy a book on Vedic math or geometry or logarithms or physics or bio. Instead I got myself a book on world history. Why? Because what man is, only history tells (George Moose). 

I believe there are two types of educations, one that teaches us to earn our livelihood and the other that teaches us to live. You can acquire education needed to earn a livelihood from academic institutions. But your first and perhaps primary source of education on life will be me for at least your growing up years. And hence since I had you I have tried extra hard at becoming a better person, becoming wiser, becoming smarter……I can’t assure you the smartest and most knowledgeable mother. But what I can do is assure you that you have a mother who is open, willing and eager to learn and pass it on. My growth as a person will be my biggest gift to you year on year.