The Baby in the Cane Box

“Teach my words to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road.” — from Deuteronomy 6

Long ago, in India, a young man named Anant Shastri went to the city of Poona to study Sanskrit. Sanskrit was the old, holy language of the Hindu books, and people said girls must not learn it. But one day, at a palace, Anant heard a queen reciting Sanskrit poems. She knew them well! He was amazed, and he made up his mind: one day he would teach his own wife, too.

Years later he married a young girl named Lakshmibai, and he began to teach her. His family did not like it at all. So he took her far away, up a tall mountain covered in thick forest, and built a home there. Lakshmibai remembered their very first night on the mountain. They had no shelter at all, and a tiger cried across the valley until morning!

Lakshmibai was a wonderful pupil. She did all the work of the house by day, and studied the holy books at night.

In April 1858 a baby girl was born in that forest home. Her parents named her Rama. People called her Ramabai, which is a polite and respectful way of saying her name.

Anant fed every pilgrim who came up the mountain, and after many years his money was gone. When Ramabai was only about six months old, the family had to leave. Her mother laid her in a big box made of cane, and a man carried it on his head all the way down the mountain. “Thus my pilgrim life began,” Ramabai said later, “when I was a little baby.”

When she was about eight, her mother began to teach her. Ramabai learned long Sanskrit poems by heart. On their travels she also picked up several languages, just by listening to people along the road!

Ramabai’s parents taught her at home and on the road. God gives parents and teachers to help us learn about the world and about him. Learning is a good gift, for girls and for boys.

Dear God, thank you for the people who teach me. Help me to love learning, and most of all to learn about you. Amen.