November 14, 1889 and November 1, 2026 for India !

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first Prime Minister of India was born on November, 14, 1889 at Allahabad. He had a rose buttoned to his jacket. The official version of how he started this habit is that, it was following the death of his wife, Kamal, in 1938.

But children believe another popular legend that a girl managed to escape the security around Pandit Nehru in a meeting in 1938, and pinned a rose in the button hole of his Jacket. Pandit Nehru had an unusual attachment to children, which was what this girl reciprocated to. Since then, having been touched by the innocent and loving gesture of a child, he started having a fresh rose on his jacket to remember children. His philosophy was, 'children are like buds in a garden, innocent, pure, needing love to bloom'. For children he was, the  'Chacha Nehru'.  

In honour of Pandit Nehru for his fondness of children, his birthday, on November 14, began to be celebrated as Children's day from 1957 onwards. 

That was history associated with Pandit Nehru. 

Today, on 1 November 2026, a public rally of thousands are held at  New Delhi to protest against the Chief Election Commissioner of India, who is thought to be responsible for omission of about 130  million eligible voters from the voter's list, following the special revision of the votes's list going on for about 2 years now.  It is the first time as much as I can recall, a protest rally is held against the chief of a constitutional body who is endowed with responsibility to be fair and just to grant voting rights to all eligible voters. There were political protests against a Prime Minster of India following the declaration of emergency in 1977.

This protest will go down in history as many opposition parties, sections of civil society of students, farmers, social workers, and labourers are jointly protesting to restore voting rights to all eligible voters. It is strange that the Election Commission of India, and the government of India did not respond adequately for over a year now even after regular representations. The honourable Supreme Court of India is currently engaged in hearing the petitions. 

When I see an ocean of people gathering for the protest today in New Delhi, I feel disturbed at the neglect and delay on the part of the authorities to the restore voting rights. There are evidences in favour of fraudulent practices during the voting process! 

The slogan, 'Restore Democracy' reverberates from the protest sight! I feel it will be remembered as a historic occasion of a peaceful protest for the purpose of redeeming the  democratic rights of people to vote! 

November is a month of the birth of a freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of India, who regarded children fondly. 

From now on,  November 1, 2026 will be remembered as the Civil Right Movement Day, a healthy process to restore democratic norms when the political governance failed in its role! This day of protest to claim back the democratic right of adult franchise for all in India is a message to the young people of India to believe in a healthy future of India. 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Give a baby your heart and home!

Anna and I received the news of the birth of a grandchild to a family we know for about forty five years. It is their second grandchild. Since getting the news, Anna knitted the above sweater during the in- between time in a week and it is now ready to be posted. 

I was touched by the attention, care and thought with which Anna knitted it thinking of the family, grandparents and carrying in her thought the baby and the parents in their transition experiences. 

A new born is a gift to the parents, grandparents and the extended family on both sides of the parents. But a new born is also a gift to rest of us and the fellow citizens of the country. 

I watched this pair of Bulbuls chirping the love language to each other at day break in our garden. As I watched them in this love exchange, my thoughts turned to the process of becoming a husband and wife and later a father and mother. The endearing relationships between the couple is what forms, nurtures and develops a baby from his or her conception onwards. 

Every baby born to a family is a celebration of this relationship of intimacy, trust, mutuality and shared living! It is this ambience which makes a baby to grow into a person. The writer of the psalm 139, found in the Old Testament of the Bible, expressed the wonder and mystery of this life formed in the mother's womb: "For thou didst form my inward parts, Thos didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" ( v13-14). 

The parents and the God of the formation participate to make each baby to be born and to grow into his or her stature of fullness of life! 

The decision of the government of the state of Tamil Nadu granting six months of maternity leave for child birth and nurture, comes to me as an enlightened regard for the life of a baby and the provision for the mother to be available at home for shadowing him or her in the early formative months. From a child development point of view, an infant develops signs of attachment behaviour with the mother from three months onwards, which is the foundational experience for the psycho-social formation of an infant. This leads him or her into fulfilled childhood emotional experiences of belonging during the pre-school years. 

I wonder, whether in a hurried pace of living we have been conditioned to  in the recent years, parents pause to give regardful attention and their physical presence to the baby!

The message of the Bulbuls was a refreshing invitation to grow in intimacy of relationship. It is such an ambience which would initiate infants into a childhood formative journey. 

Anna and I recently presented this book as our contribution to support parents in creating a play-based home environment at home for their pre-school children 

We remember parents who have infants and toddlers at home! May they feel the delight and fulfilment of being companions to their child! 

They have a future beyond our expectations or imagination in the words, of Kahil Gibran, the poet who defined the mystery of childhood.

" Your children are not your children,

They are the sons and daughters of

Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you,

You may give them your love but nor your thoughts,

You may house their bodies, but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you,

For life goes not backward nor tarries 

with yesterday".

For all parents of infants and toddlers, this is a calling- live beholding the joyful surprises in your growing up child and stay content in giving  the child a home and your presence!

M.C. Mathew(text and photo)