Sama Thawalama has some good themes for its street dramas. But the only fault is that the government is trying to show or give something to the people in the South who were always convinced about the need for Peace and Togetherness.
Some people in the North are the creators of problems by breaking peace and calling for separation. By sending the Thavalama to the South our rulers have once again shown that they do not know whether they are coming or going and that they are more suitable to draw real thawalamas.
Whilst thousands of devotees assembled for the Indian Government’s state funeral for Mother Teresa, the Vatican announced that ‘she will not be considered for sainthood for at least five years’. There will be “a cooling period to avoid any momentary enthusiasm”. The president of the Pontifical Council which deals with media issues Archbishop John Foley said: “ I would never say that Mother Teresa is not a saint; she certainly is an extraordinarily holy woman, but we cannot anticipate the judgement of the church.”
Mother Teresa’s funeral closely following Princess Diana’s obsequies has evoked worldwide interest. Pope John Paul told crowds in Rome: “I warmly thank the Lord for having given us this woman to remind everyone of the spirit of evangelical love.” Princess Diana who first met the nun in Rome in February 1992 was one of her ardent admirers. Mother Teresa described the Princess as “an ordinary housewife, a good wife and mother. She helped me to help the poor and that’s the most beautiful thing.” The Princess who was in New York in June to help the Red Cross for cancer victims once again met Mother Teresa. They walked through the streets of Bronx and hugged and kissed and prayed together.
When Mother Teresa won the Nobel Prize in 1979 her reply was: “I am unworthy.” The committee gave her the award “For work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress in the world, which also contribute a threat to peace.” She said “Ours is a humble service. We try to remain right down in the ground.” She denied that pity will help the poor. “They don’t need pity, they need love and compassion.”
On social issues Mother Teresa backed the Catholic church with remarkable outspokenness. She was opposed to contraception, abortion and divorce. In her Nobel Prize speech she said: “To me the nations with legalised abortion are the poorest nations. The greatest destroyer of peace today is the crime against the unborn child”.
In her mission the Albanian born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiou was not above criticism. She was accused of manipulating public relations. They criticised her for preaching surrender and fatalism rather than tackling the causes of the suffering she alleviated. When the nun was asked why she did not give the poor the means to feed themselves, she replied: “ I pick my people up, they can’t even stand. They are either sick or hungry. So I take them. Once they are all right, they don’t come to me anymore.” However, it was Christopher Hitchens, the columnist for Vanity Fair and The Nation who wrote in his book “The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice” that “the nun furnished Public Relations type cover for all manner of cultists and shady businessmen”. He believed that “her success depended on the exploitation of the simple and the humble by the cunning and singleminded.” Hitchens came in for a barrage of criticism. In 1994 a British TV documentary criticised her for carrying “perceptions of hyperbole and credulity.”
Mother Teresa was undaunted. Today the order feeds half a million families a year in Calcutta alone, with schooling for 20,000 children and medical care for 90,000 lepers. The Congregation is spread in 90 countries. Mother Teresa has worked in India for 68 years. Her successor is Sister Nirmala, (63) the daughter of a high caste Brahmin in Bihar state. She was converted to Christianity at 24 before joining the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa was awarded the highest civilian award The Jewel of India, by the Indian Government.
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