"It is an act of tender love and kindness, and not one of pain, that moves a cynic to tears."
Today, I was moved to tears.
It doesn't happen to me that often, and I confess, I do subscribe to the notion of 'boys don't cry'.
But today, I was moved to tears. You might ask why? what? how? I shall answer precisely those.
Nearly a hundred years ago, a woman was born in Albania, a land which after some years was torn apart by violence and ethnic conflict. The situation was grim world over; two great wars, poverty, people dying hungry, diseased, as social outcasts.
But through those very dark times, this person chose to embrace a path of love, devotion, and service to mankind. We know her today as Mother Teresa.
I'm not gonna go into details about her life, I leave that for you to discover. How? I shall tell you that soon.
What I am going to say is that how, in just a brief twenty minute walk through an exhibition, held currently at VT Station, I came to suddenly admire this person in ways I never have.
I remember my mother telling me, how her mother used to tell her about when she first came to hear of Mother Teresa. My grandmother chronicled her school days when the news of a nun serving the dying and diseased caught the world's attention. India at that time had just achieved independence, and the leaders of West Bengal, in particular, did not want their state to be portrayed as a hell hole filled with the rejects of the world. They tried creating problems, as politicians always do. But Mother Teresa was resolute. Through her selfless service, and I use the term 'selfless' in every sense of it, she gave a moment of dignity to the dying. Orphans, lepers, poor, everyone, is entitled to a right to peace and dignity in death. Mother Teresa ensured that. And she set out to make this world a better place. And she has.
My grandfather had an opportunity to meet her once when he was on his way to India. He knelt by her and asked for her blessings. Even today, as he recounts that incident, my hair stands on end, and my eyes get wet.
Today, those twenty minutes in the '
Mother Teresa Express' were unlike any in my entire life. There was a force at work there, a spirit with the sheer power of its purity, touched the deepest, darkest corner of my heart.
We might not be fully aware of what her legacy is, but with the help of media, we just might be able to understand it. But to experience it, we must walk on the path she laid for humanity.
Love, peace, sacrifice and an unending devotion to humanity, this planet and all those who need our help.
This is the legacy of Mother Teresa, and this is what moved me to tears...
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean; I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
-Mother Teresa.
The Mother Teresa Express is on display on Platform 13, at CST, on December 8th and 9th.
