On eve of canonisation, Saint’s humility remembered
SHILLONG: Her luggage was only a small cloth bag, a symbol of utmost humility, when she arrived in Shillong in 1974-75.
This had surprised the couple – Edith Kharshiing and Martin Majaw – who had received her.
The extreme humility of Mother Teresa is still fresh in the mind of John F. Kharshiing, the son of Edith and Martin, who was a legislator then, as he recollects the warmth brought by the visit of the ‘Living Saint’ over 40 years ago to their Fidelis Cottage on Hopkinson Road in Laitumkhrah owned by his grandmother Tilda Narayan Majaw. John was 13 years old when Mother Teresa visited the family.
John, currently Co- Chairman of the State Planning Board, recalled that she came to the Fidelis Cottage directly from Guwahati.
“I remember that my father told me that a saint has arrived. A photographer from a studio in Laitumkhrah took out a group photo of the family as officials waited outside,” John reminisced.
According to John, Mother Teresa was a remarkable human being. “It is a blessing that she visited us. We are privileged and honoured to have met and interacted with her. I feel that it was a few days ago that she visited us though she had met all of us in 1975,” he said.
What struck John was her humility which also attracted the family towards her.
“My late mother Edith Kharshiing and late father Martin N Majaw were the privileged movers in getting a land at Nongpoh for the missionary Sisters of Charity to set up a leprosy centre, and arranging her visit to Shillong, which resulted in a walkathon with Mother Teresa in 1975 organised by the Rotary Club of Shillong,” John said on Saturday, on the eve of the Mother’s canonisation in the Vatican.
According to John, his parents had to talk to the government and traditional heads many times to get the land at Nongpoh, and the prominent political leader from Nongpoh, D.D. Lapang, had supported the cause.
The home for the lepers at Nongpoh, Ri Bhoi, and another for the orphans at Nongrimbah in the city were set up in 1974 during the visit of Mother Teresa. The home at Nongrimbah was made possible after the house was donated by a foreigner.
John’s parents were also instrumental in setting up another home for Missionaries of Charity at Shanti Bhavan near Raj Bhavan in 1996.
Recalling the family’s close association with the saint, John said, “Mother Teresa, whose humility was felt by all mankind cutting across caste and religion, had tremendous personality. When my late father was under detention during the Emergency, she used to send letters to us consoling us besides dispatching letters directly to the jail where my father was lodged.”
Another memorable thing is that during the Naxalite movement in Kolkata, the rebels used to listen to Mother Teresa as she had fervently made a plea to end violence, he said.
Considering the charity works initiated by her, the Airlines in 1970s gave her free access to travel.
According to John, Shillong is blessed by the visit of two important personalities, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, who was already declared a saint.
In fact, Mother Teresa had visited Shillong again in 1988 to receive an award from NEHU.
After a long gap, John had met Mother Teresa with his late mother Edith Kharshiing, at Mother House in Kolkata on December 28, 1994.