Saturday, 29 October 2016
So...it has been a long time since I have been with you. What's new? Well, not much.
Still depressed and anxious, still helping out the blind neighbour. He can't get out any more so I do the shopping and cook his supper every night. It gives me a reason to get up in the morning. So it goes....
I still live in sense of permanent nostalgia and longing for Calcutta and my days in the sun. I long for hazy sunny days when the heat was oppressive and time seemed to stand still. Can't quite believe that I am 61. Still feel like a teenager.
Getting this laptop has been a boon. It came from a local charity who ate trying to get the older generation online. If you ever have doubts about the efficacy of charities take my word for it - they do help and help a lot!
During my time away Mother Theresa became a saint and I was reminded of days spent a Shishu Bhavan and hours sp0ent folding little paper envelopes for medicines. My father was Mother's doctor and would periodically put her into Woodlands for a much needed rest. He was one of the few people she would listen to. She was extraordinary, small and hunched and full of power. She burned with a mission that compelled attention. Desmond wrote a wonderful book about her. By the end of it he was a convert- if not to faith then to belief in her strength and power of belief.
My parents were very friendly with Brother Andrew - Mother T's male counterpart and
Dad used to go and treat many of the children in his care. It was Andrew that recognised the need for some kind of drug treatment and he set up a house at Dum Dum.
One Good Friday we got a call that there was a naked European outside my Dad's surgery at Lord Sinha Road.. My mother and I went down and sure enough there was naked man lying on the doorstep claiming to be Jesus. He was Australian and clearly in trouble. We contacted a friend, Doug Sturkey, the Australian High Commissioner and he suggested we tried to see if we could use the Missionaries of Charity new facility. Things moved quickly and the young man was put into the High Commissioner's car and taken out to Dum Dum.
I went to my friend John Brinand and asked for his help as it was clear that the man was on some kind trip and I thought, perhaps naively, that John would be able to talk him down. We went out ot Dum Dum together and found David (that was his name) still naked, on the floor and still tripping. John was amazing with him and managed to calm him and we committed to come back the next day.
It turned out that David had fallen in with a nasty piece of work who had befriended him, given him a four way hit of acid and stolen his passport and money. We were able to arrange anew passport through Doug and also got him repatriated to Australia. Not a typical Mother Theresa story perhaps but an example of how for her influence and that of the Missionaries of Charity extended beyond the destitute and dying and orphans of Calcutta.
Still depressed and anxious, still helping out the blind neighbour. He can't get out any more so I do the shopping and cook his supper every night. It gives me a reason to get up in the morning. So it goes....
I still live in sense of permanent nostalgia and longing for Calcutta and my days in the sun. I long for hazy sunny days when the heat was oppressive and time seemed to stand still. Can't quite believe that I am 61. Still feel like a teenager.
Getting this laptop has been a boon. It came from a local charity who ate trying to get the older generation online. If you ever have doubts about the efficacy of charities take my word for it - they do help and help a lot!
During my time away Mother Theresa became a saint and I was reminded of days spent a Shishu Bhavan and hours sp0ent folding little paper envelopes for medicines. My father was Mother's doctor and would periodically put her into Woodlands for a much needed rest. He was one of the few people she would listen to. She was extraordinary, small and hunched and full of power. She burned with a mission that compelled attention. Desmond wrote a wonderful book about her. By the end of it he was a convert- if not to faith then to belief in her strength and power of belief.
My parents were very friendly with Brother Andrew - Mother T's male counterpart and
Dad used to go and treat many of the children in his care. It was Andrew that recognised the need for some kind of drug treatment and he set up a house at Dum Dum.
One Good Friday we got a call that there was a naked European outside my Dad's surgery at Lord Sinha Road.. My mother and I went down and sure enough there was naked man lying on the doorstep claiming to be Jesus. He was Australian and clearly in trouble. We contacted a friend, Doug Sturkey, the Australian High Commissioner and he suggested we tried to see if we could use the Missionaries of Charity new facility. Things moved quickly and the young man was put into the High Commissioner's car and taken out to Dum Dum.
I went to my friend John Brinand and asked for his help as it was clear that the man was on some kind trip and I thought, perhaps naively, that John would be able to talk him down. We went out ot Dum Dum together and found David (that was his name) still naked, on the floor and still tripping. John was amazing with him and managed to calm him and we committed to come back the next day.
It turned out that David had fallen in with a nasty piece of work who had befriended him, given him a four way hit of acid and stolen his passport and money. We were able to arrange anew passport through Doug and also got him repatriated to Australia. Not a typical Mother Theresa story perhaps but an example of how for her influence and that of the Missionaries of Charity extended beyond the destitute and dying and orphans of Calcutta.
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