BENGALURU: “Mother was a noble and humble soul with only two saris. She used to carry a thread and needle and stitch wherever her sari was torn,” recollects Raju Chandrashekar, former chairman, Blood Bank, Indian Red Cross Society, Karnataka. With the Vatican set to officially declare Mother Teresa as a Saint on Sunday, Raju is not surprised. “She was one of the greatest souls serving mankind. She was always near God,” he says and recounts touching anecdotes.
He speaks about the time when Mother came to Bengaluru and was in Fraser Town for a visit to a centre housing abandoned newborn babies. “The money that was collected here was left behind for the project as she never believed in carrying money or any contribution with her. In fact, she had appointed and identified good, service-minded people in many projects and centres all over the country and that attracted lot of people to donate. It was my greatest fortune to have her blessings and spend some wonderful moments with her. For me, she being conferred with Sainthood is a proud moment,” he says.
Narrating his first meeting with Mother at the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, he says that although he had no prior appointment, “she herself opened the door and ushered me and my family in with a lovely smile. It was in 1993 and I cherish those memories. She took us to her chamber and enquired about our activities in Karnataka. She took us around the place and explained their various activities.”
However, Chandrashekar says Mother had told him that it was very difficult to carry out social service. “Once, a middle-aged person brought an old man who was in his last stages and told her that he had been lying on the streets with nobody to look after him. He left the old man at the Missionaries of Charity and left. The old man survived for four months after Mother and her nuns looked after him. They also completed his last rites. But two or three days later, the man who had left the old man came back with a mob of 150-200 people and started pelting stones, shouting that the Missionaries had killed his father. Mother related this incident with a lot of pain and said that when a son is unable to take care of his father, what mistake did the Missionaries commit in making the life of an end-stage patient dignified,” he recollects.
Remembering another meeting with Mother, this time in Delhi at National Managing Body meeting of the Indian Red Cross Society in 1996, Chandrashekar says, “We were served a lot of sweets, biscuits, cashewnuts etc. At the end of the meeting, Mother called me and asked me to help her pick up the leftover food. She asked me to accompany her to a nearby slum. The moment we reached there, many children gathered around us and Mother distributed the food items to all of them.”
“Then she said, ‘See the joy on the faces of these kids, how happy they are and with just a little effort, we are able to lessen their hunger’,” says Chandrashekar.