Mother Teresa

Founder - Missionaries of Charity, Nobel Peace Prize 1979, Bharat Ratna 1980

Born: 26th August 1910, Skopje, Macedonia

Died: 7th September 1997, Calcutta

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. - Mother Teresa

The first autograph I got in person is also my most treasured.

I was just 8 years old when I tagged along with my mother and neighbours to meet Mother Teresa at The Missionaries of Charity, Bangalore in Jan 1979. My mother had told me, "She is a Saint. Don't forget to get her blessings." So that is what I did! I touched her little feet and I also got her autograph in my first little autograph book. The pen Mother Teresa used (I can't remember if I gave it to her or she used someone else's pen) did not write properly, so she signed twice. And because the autograph book was made of thin paper, the impression went through onto the next page. I've saved that page too.

Mother Teresa autograph 1979-01-31

31st Jan 1979

Mother Teresa newspaper letter
Mother Teresa newspaper photograph

Deccan Herald newspaper carried a letter and a photograph from Mother Teresa that I had cut and saved with the autograph.

Mother Teresa The Hindu newspaper article, 1992-01-12
Mother Teresa photograph

A few years later in high school, my friend Niti Sharma, seeing my newspaper pics of Mother Teresa gave me this "real" photograph. It was taken in 1968 in Darjeeling during the West Bengal Governor Dharma Vira's visit to Mother Teresa's home. In the picture is Niti's dad Satish Kumar Sharma, who was, at that time, the ADC to the Governor.