KOLKATA -
Six years after her death and as she is beatified in
Rome, Mother Teresa's spirit remains vibrant in Kolkata,
the east Indian city where, for decades, she gave
dignity to the dying, compassion to the poor and a home
to abandoned and handicapped children.
Over half
a century after founding her Missionaries of Charity
order, Mother Teresa's legacy continues to blur
religious lines in this mainly Hindu nation, where
communal tensions often explode into brutal bloodshed.
Known as the "Saint of the Gutters", her
beatification by Pope John Paul II - a prelude to her
being declared a saint - is a source of pride to many in
Kolkata, from the ruling Marxist Party in West Bengal
state to Muslims and Hindus.
She remains
"Mother" to most Kolkatans, rich or poor, and "Ma" to
the wretched and dispossessed in this predominantly poor
city.
They developed a special link to the tiny
woman who came to the city in 1929 at the age of 19 from
her birthplace of Skopje, Albania, and taught in a local
girl's school before starting the Missionaries of
Charity in 1950 with just 12 nuns.
Today, the
order has 4,500 nuns spread across 133 countries. Its
sisters, in their distinctive, blue-bordered white rough
cotton saris, are a familiar sight in Mother Teresa's
adopted city of 15 million people.
At the Nirmal
Hridaya (Clean Heart) hospice for the dying, the first
home Mother Teresa established in the face of stiff
opposition next to the Kalighat Temple in a poor
orthodox Hindu area, the diminutive nun is revered as a
devi or goddess.
In a large room at
Nirmal Hridaya where terminally ill men are lying on
beds side by side, the atmosphere is grim and
depressing. Some, nearing their end, hardly move, but
are pleased to be in a place where they can die with
respect.
"The inmates here have been brought in
off the streets. We provide them a clean bed and
medication in an attempt to give them a dignified end,"
Shayak, a volunteer from Kolkata's well-known St
Xavier's college, said. "Like Mother Teresa, the
religion of the inmates is of no consequence to us."
"I was on the street and thought I was going to
die like an animal. Now I know that I'll die like a
human being in the care of Mother Teresa," an inmate
told Sister Teresina.
The sisters, in keeping
with Mother's instructions, try and give all those who
die here the last rites in their own religion. Mother
Teresa's critics accused her of converting people on
their deathbeds in order to "garner souls for
Christianity", a claim that Mother Teresa thought below
her dignity to challenge or even acknowledge.
Meanwhile, hundreds of locals - irrespective of
their religion - visit daily Mother Teresa's simple
white marble-topped tomb in the forecourt of Mother
House, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity,
in order to invoke her blessings.
"It does not
matter that she was Christian and I am Hindu," said
Rajan Kumar Gupta, a cigarette seller who is a devout
Hindu and daily prays to Shiva, the god of destruction
and regeneration, and sports a red mark on his forehead
as an open display of his piety. "I will have no trouble
praying to her if she one day becomes a saint," he said
of world's most famous Catholic nun.
Parents
place their newborn babies on her tomb, asking Mother to
give their offspring a long and trouble-free life.
On Friday, the unadorned box placed on top of
her tomb was crammed full of requests to Mother,
majority of them from youngsters and many of whom were
infants when she died at the age of 87 in September
1997.
Several who thus appeal to Mother Teresa
are convinced that she still has the power to reach out
and alleviate their suffering, or grant their wishes.
"Mother Teresa is truly the mother of the poor and this
city," said Sohinder Grewal, a Sikh who has worked
closely with the Missionaries of Charity for over two
decades.
"Her maxim of giving till it hurt still
seems very much alive not only in the city but in all
the various charitable institutions she initiated across
India and the world. Mother Teresa was truly a saint
whose appeal transcends all religious boundaries,"
Grewal added.
After her beatification, Mother
Teresa will be canonized at a future date and will be
known thereafter as Saint Teresa.
Even the
communists, who for 26 years have ruled West Bengal
state, of which Kolkata is the capital, and maintained a
certain distance from Mother Teresa, have a soft spot
for her. They bent the rules so she could be buried at
her order's headquarters instead of at a cemetery.
"She was a great representative for humanity,"
State Minorities Development and Welfare Minister
Mohammad Salim said. "She worked with the poor and
marginalized. As communists, we empathize with that and
respect her for it," he added.
Kolkata is a city
that rouses strong passions. Rudyard Kipling called it
the "the city of dreadful night" while a former prime
minister called it a "dying" metropolis.
But
Mother Teresa never felt negatively about it. "Unlike
many others, she never judged Kolkata despite seeing its
worst side," said Dr Shila Verma, a dedicated Hindu who
prays daily to several deities.
"All she did was
help the downtrodden and give them dignity," he added.
"Kolkata will be happy when she formally becomes a saint
as most of us think she [already] is one."
"She
won our hearts by giving love to those who needed it
when we Kolkatans did so little. When they call her
Mother, the people of Kolkata mean it," veteran Hindu
Bengali writer Mani Sankar Mukherji said. Kolkatans, he
declared, already elevated her to sainthood when she was
alive - but her beatification by the Vatican is welcome.
(Inter Press Service)
Oct 21, 2003
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