Legacy: Letters from eminent parents to their daughters by Menon, Sudha (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📗

My dearest Anjali, Aarti, and Aditi,

It seems like only yesterday that you came into my life, each one of you so cherished, so much loved and doted upon by Pa and me, and each one of you adding richness and color into our lives. I don’t know if I ever told you this but Pa loved children so much that he almost wanted me to get pregnant the day after we got married! I completely resisted.

It has been a long journey for all of us and it seems almost unbelievable at times to see all three of you grown up into young women now with your lives charted before you.

Now that we have put all the birthday parties, magicians, pink frocks, and late night ice-cream treats behind us, I would love to get you together to tell you a few things that I know that you are already aware of, but are still worth saying.

The other day somebody asked me what I think are the most important things for our daughters to know, as they set out on the journey of their own lives. These are the few things that I always want to convey to my daughters, and I think holds true for any mom in general.

As clichéd as it sounds, my princesses, what I want most for you is to learn to live your life with great self-respect and dignity. That is the most important thing of all for a woman, anywhere in the world. That and to do something the three of you love to do. Often my friends, and sometimes you three too, wonder where I get all my energy from and how I manage to stay awake at nights so that I get work done at the office, late into the night when the world is fast asleep. My reply, always, is very simple. I am in love with what I do and that alone is enough to give you all the energy you need. That, plus being happy and being grateful for the generosity of God in your lives. Happiness gives you a kind of energy boost that nothing else can give, so cultivate the ability to be happy in whatever circumstances or choices that you have made.

My most fervent prayer to God, the one prayer that I hope He is listening to, is that my daughters remain grounded in their faith to him. My dears, I can’t tell you enough about the importance of faith in our lives. When everything in our lives seem to have gone horribly wrong or topsy turvy, faith alone has the strength to keep us moving forward. I hope always that you will believe in the Almighty and His creation and that you fear and love God in equal measure. Retribution by God is a good thing to fear, it keeps all of us on the straight and narrow, you know.

I often get the feeling that young people don’t think they will ever die and so they don’t start building their life’s balance sheet till much later. My belief in the Baha’i faith has helped me personally withstand a lot of very challenging times and you know how much I try to impart that faith to all you sisters. There are times that I wish and hope that you discover the power of prayer because I sometimes worry that you need to have enough faith. I want to tell you today that the connection with God is something that will help weather a lot of storms in life and believe me, there are going to be many of those.

This means having the inner conviction that there is a superior force more powerful than us human beings, a conviction that every test that comes your way is yours for you to conquer for Him. I get nervous sometimes for you, my children. I worry that God has been kind to us and things have been so smooth that I wonder how my princesses will deliver when God finally tests them with struggles and hardships.

Like every parent of daughters, I too worry about your future, pray that you find wonderful partners who will love, cherish, and respect you for what you are. I got married to my childhood sweetheart and so the path of an arranged marriage for you has never struck your parents. In some ways, I know you will find the right companions because we have inculcated the right values in you, opened up your minds by making sure you have travelled all over the world, been exposed to different cultures and people, and know to hold your own in most circumstances.

Marriage, children, and life will happen to you but through all that, I want to urge all three of you to go find your individual place in the sun.

Anjali (Anjoss), I can’t believe that my first-born, the little girl for who we prepared a nursery with so much enthusiasm months before her arrival, has now travelled around the world, and has found her own groove in designing furniture. We should have seen that coming because even as a child, you amazed us with your love for stylish clothes, your eye for detail, and your insistence that everything around you had to be ‘just so’. At the same time, you juggle your commitment to your NGO and pack your day completely. Sometimes I see you looking tired but think this is your time for hard work. This is your beginning.

Aarti (Artuss), my second born, you have no idea how much I am waiting for you to finally discover that law is truly your calling. I’m hoping that the three years that you will spend in New York for your law degree will convince you that there is merit in what your mother is doing. I pray sometimes that you will join me in my profession but if you discover something else that engages you more than law, I’m still going to