A knock on Mother Teresa’s door

Remembering Mother Teresa's epochal work on her 24th death anniversary, Rameshinder Singh Sandhu writes about a visit to her museum in Kolkata that emanates immense virtue to fill the heart with tranquillity

The stone on Mother Teresa’s tomb. PHOTO BY AUTHOR

Barely a month before the nationwide lockdown was pressed into action, I was in Kolkata and each time I introduced myself as a tourist from Amritsar, none of the locals and other visitors forgot to pepper my ears for planting globally known philanthropist Mother Teresa’s house in my exploring plans. Today marks her 24th death anniversary.

Hence, on the last day of my ten-day trip, I visited the historic home where the famous mother breathed her last on September 5 of 1997 and gave wings to her noble mission several decades ago to provide food, shelter, and care to the many underprivileged souls.

I chose to walk to her inspiring world, but it was a long walk beginning from Park Street’s metro station. I knew it would be so memorable for me to be there, and this thought alone spurred my walk. I kept walking straight, as everyone kept directing me, with only one left turn to the AJC Bose Road, where it proudly sits.

I was finally in front of it, just a few minutes later. The entrance is from a narrow lane through a petite door with her picture on the top. A group of foreign visitors was already stepping in. As I joined them, a nun welcomed us. I instantly felt enveloped in tranquillity. “I will suggest you start with the mother’s museum,” she told us.

Housed in a small room in a corner of the courtyard, it is here that you feel like having met her as it has not only put on display her rare pictures and stories, but also many of her personal belongings. It includes her bath towels, handkerchiefs, dresses, sandals, handbag, torch, blood pressure monitor, syringes and needles used for one of her last blood tests, diaries, handwritten prayer book, pencil box, wheelchair, cutlery, door handles, and also her certificates including that of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her on December 10, 1979.

Combing through her pictures silently made me admire her reverential work. The most nostalgic one for me was where she is seen teaching sisters to repair their own sandals. As I took leave from the museum and planted my feet back in the courtyard, there were young South American volunteers helping some sisters to clean the chairs. Hailing from Chile, they proudly told me that volunteering at such a place is like an introduction to joy like no other. “We get volunteers like them every day but mostly foreigners, who punctuate their trips for several days by helping us,” said one of the sisters.

Above the courtyard rise a few floors, holding rooms where large numbers of needy souls live. Then I finally took a small flight of stairs leading to Mother Teresa’s very small room where she lived and worked since the 1950s and breathed her last. I was surprised looking at the single bed in one corner, a little wooden cupboard, and a writing table, where she often sat for hours, responding to letters she received from almost every pocket of the world. On the walls, hangs a portrait of Jesus, the Holy Cross, and a world map. My eyes caught all this from the locked glass door to her room, and I wished if it was left open.

Coming down, I saw a steady stream of visitors entering a large hall, just steps away from the entrance. I followed them, many already sitting on the benches surrounding a tomb, which I learned was of Mother Teresa, as she was buried right here after her body was laid out for the last tributes in the local St Thomas Church for a few days.

Bathed in silence, many worshippers were soaked in prayers, and some simply taking pictures. Following a beautiful Bible quote and birth and death days of Mother Teresa, a stone on the grave reads: “Our dearly beloved mother: Foundress of the Missionary of Charity.”

I chose to meditate around, and during each passing moment, I felt the noble soul’s philanthropy flashing before my eyes. I slipped out with joy and peace.