Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Ant Line on the Doorstep
↗On Mahavir Jayanti morning, a long line of ants marches across the doorstep just where the guests will step in for the temple procession. Bhaiya wants to sweep them away. Your child remembers Dadi saying that today every creature gets to live its day in peace. So Your child lays a strip of sugar on a banana leaf at the side of the step and waits. The ants turn towards it, and the guests walk in without harming a single one.
Lesson: The smallest lives deserve a safe path too
Mahavir JayantiYour child Pulls the Rath with the Elders
↗The rath yatra through the old bazaar has a wooden chariot pulled with thick ropes, and only the grown-ups hold them. Your child tugs Papa's sleeve and asks for a turn. Papa says the rope is heavy. Your child finds the loose end trailing on the road, picks it up so nobody trips, and walks with it all the way to the temple. At the gate, the old rope-master ties a small knot for Your child to hold next year.
Lesson: Carry the part that is yours and the big work gets lighter
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Story of the Prince Who Walked Away
↗By the evening lamp, Nani tells Your child how a prince named Vardhaman had every comfort a palace could give, yet left it all to walk barefoot and learn how to hurt nothing, and became known as Mahavir, the great brave one. Your child asks how walking barefoot is brave. Nani smiles. The next day, Your child gives up the last piece of cake to a cousin without being asked, and finds it feels a bit like bravery.
Lesson: Giving something up for another takes real courage
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Cows at the Panjrapole
↗ Chacha takes Your child to the panjrapole, the animal shelter the community keeps, to feed the old cows on Mahavir Jayanti. One cow with a torn ear will not come near the hay. The other children give up. Your child sits on the ground with a handful of green grass held low and talks softly about school. After a long time, the cow steps closer and takes the grass from Your child's open palm.
Lesson: Gentleness reaches those that shouting cannot
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Temple Full of White
↗ At the marble Jain temple, everyone is in white and Your child has a new white kurta that must stay clean. On the steps, a small boy slips and his plate of rice and almonds scatters. Everybody walks round him. Your child kneels on the dusty step, helps him gather each grain, and walks in with a smudged kurta. Inside, Bua whispers that a kind kurta is better than a clean one.
Lesson: Helping is worth more than staying spotless
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Grain for the Pigeons
↗ Every Mahavir Jayanti, Dada buys a big bag of bajra and scatters it for the pigeons in the town square. This year Dada's back hurts and he cannot bend. Your child takes the bag, but the pigeons are too many and rush at the first handful. Your child walks slowly in a wide circle, sprinkling a little at each step, so the birds spread out and every one gets a share. Dada watches from the bench and claps.
Lesson: Share slowly and evenly so no one is left out
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Mosquito Net Promise
↗ On Mahavir Jayanti night, Your child hears Amma say the family tries not to harm any creature today, not even a mosquito. But the bedroom is buzzing. Your child refuses the swatter and instead climbs on the bed, hangs the old mosquito net from the fan hook and tucks it under the mattress on every side. Amma comes in to find Your child fast asleep in a little white tent, and not one mosquito harmed.
Lesson: There is nearly always a kind way if you look for it
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Simple Food Day
↗ On Mahavir Jayanti the family eats simple food: no onions, no potatoes, nothing dug from the ground, so that no small creatures in the soil are disturbed. Your child grumbles at the plain dal and rice. Then Dadi explains that today the meal is a kind of thank-you to the earth. Your child helps grind the fresh chutney, sets out the rotis, and decides that a plain meal made together tastes surprisingly good.
Lesson: A meal made with care is never truly plain
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Lost Sparrow in the Classroom
↗ School is open on the day before Mahavir Jayanti, and a sparrow flies into the classroom and cannot find the way out. The children shout and wave their bags, and the bird crashes into the fan. Your child asks everyone to sit still and go quiet, opens every window wide, and switches off the fan. In the silence, the sparrow calms down and flies straight out into the neem tree. The teacher writes ahimsa on the board.
Lesson: Calm helps the frightened find their way
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Rath That Stopped at the Clinic
↗ The Mahavir Jayanti procession is winding through town with music and flags when Your child notices the rath is about to pass the small clinic where Dada is resting. Your child runs ahead and asks the band leader if they could play softly for a minute so the sick can rest. The whole procession lowers its drums, and the nurses come out to wave. Dada says he heard it, and that it was the sweetest moment of the day.
Lesson: Kindness is also knowing when to be quiet
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Forgiveness Note
↗ Dadi says Mahavir Jayanti is a good day to put down anger like a heavy bag. Your child has not spoken to best friend Ria for a week after a quarrel over a broken pencil box. On the morning of the festival, Your child writes a note that says 'Sorry for the shouting' and slips it into Ria's letterbox with a packet of dry fruit from the temple prasad. By afternoon, both are sitting on the colony wall sharing almonds.
Lesson: Saying sorry first is a way of being strong
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Village Well with No Cover
↗ At Nana's village for Mahavir Jayanti, the open well by the fields has frogs and one of them keeps falling in. The farmers say it is just a frog. Your child fetches a coil of rope from the shed, ties a flat basket to it, and lowers it down until the frog hops in. Then Your child and Nana lay a wooden lattice over the well so it can never happen again. That evening the frogs sing from the safe side.
Lesson: Fix the danger, not just the moment
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Sweet Shop in the City
↗ In the Mumbai flat, Ammi has sent Your child down to the sweet shop for the festival mithai to share with the neighbours on Mahavir Jayanti. The shopkeeper packs the box and there is a ten-rupee coin extra in the change. Your child almost keeps it, then walks back through the crowd to return it. The shopkeeper laughs, adds two extra pedas to the box, and tells Your child to share them with the watchman.
Lesson: Being honest with small things builds big trust
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Butterfly at the Temple Garden
↗ After the Mahavir Jayanti prayers, the cousins chase a big yellow butterfly round the temple garden, trying to catch it in a cap. Your child joins the chase, then stops when the butterfly lands trembling on a rose. Your child says, 'Let's just watch,' and the cousins sit on the grass in a circle around it. Slowly the butterfly opens its wings, and a second one lands beside it. Nobody caught anything, and nobody minded.
Lesson: Some things are more beautiful left free
Mahavir JayantiYour child and the Lamp of the Last Evening
↗ The festival ends with the family lighting a small lamp and each person naming one creature they were kind to that day. Chacha names the cows, Dadi names the pigeons. Your child cannot think of anything and feels the day slipping away. Then Amma reminds Your child of the stray dog given water at the school gate. Your child lights the lamp with a wide smile and promises to keep the water bowl filled all summer.
Lesson: A small kindness counts as much as a big one