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Editor's note: The following piece was written by Dr. Punyabrata Roy, a psychiatrist with Cen Clear. Dr. Roy, as he is known locally, said writing is a hobby and in particular, he wrote poetry in his native language of Bengali. Today, he mostly writes articles on mental health, Roy said, but he wanted to share his memory of meeting Mother Teresa now, in light of the war in Ukraine.
Only a couple of minutes with Mother Teresa made an everlasting imprint on my heart.
It was in 1975 and I was a medical student at S.S. Medical College -- Mitford Hospital, located in the old part of Dhaka City, capital of Bangladesh. Mother Teresa started her charity work in the city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, one of the provinces of India.
Being the neighboring country of India, Mother Teresa extended her work in Bangladesh.
On the way to my medical school, every day I used to see "Missionaries of Charity" on lslampur Road. I knew that was the place where Mother Teresa came every now and then to supervise the activities of the charity.
One day, I entered the charity to find out the day of her visit and to make an appointment to meet her. To my surprise, two days later she was supposed to visit, so it was easy to make an appointment to see Mother Teresa.
What an excitement -- on a Thursday at 8 a.m. -- to meet with Mother Teresa.
I was standing in front of a small table with two chairs set up opposite to each other. It was a precious moment when she entered the room, with two hands put together in front of her in an Indian way to greet me and she requested me to have a seat. I was touched with her humbleness, divine spirit, softness of speech, clarity of her views for humanity and love.
As if she knew me before, she asked me about my hardships in life, other students living in my residential hall and their difficulties, and about the love of God for us and our obligation for the sufferings of others.
Finally, with due respect, I requested her autograph. She wrote, "May God Bless You," then her signature.
Though it was only a five-minute meeting, it seemed as if she melted away my infirmities of mind, like the strong acid taking away impurities of metal to make a piece of valuable gold. Unfortunately, when moving from Dhaka to New York, and then from New York to Pennsylvania, I lost the booklet with her autograph, which was invaluable to me.
Though I lost the autograph, I did not lose the immemorial moments I had with Mother Teresa.
This is a special time to remember Mother Teresa, when humanity is under attack from brutality and the hope of life is submerged in darkness.
The ideology of Mother Teresa is like light shining in darkness, hope for the destitute.
She used to pick up the orphans and poor children from the sidewalks and slums, carrying them on her lap without any discrimination or fear of contamination of germs.
What a compassionate care for humanity!
Her work was slow but steady, uncompromised but divine, precious, and never ending for the poor and neglected children who deserve love, care and support.
Autocracy stays for moments or months, like lightning of a thunderstorm, but the willpower of Mother Teresa and her ideology is everlasting, uncompromising, widespread like the sky, full of hope, respect and dignity for others and all human beings.
Now, we need to show our love for humanity, the immortal work of Mother Teresa for the society, especially for the people who need help and care.