All that is not given is lost

Location: India
Registered: November 29, 2006
Posts: 95

#1 January 2, 7:32 pm

Calcutta: One Saintly
Morning, 26 Years Ago

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That encounter with
Mother Teresa changed my whole life and worldview

by: Dominique Lapierre

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At the Home of the Pure Heart, Nirmal Hriday, set up by
Mother Teresa where the dying and the destitute find shelter

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The place was called
Nirmal Hriday, Home of the Pure Heart. It used to be a Hindu pilgrims’ home
and it was located right next to the Kalighat temple in Calcutta. In between
the rows of beds in a big room, there was an old, wrinkled woman dressed in a
white cotton sari bordered with blue. She had a soup bowl in one hand and a
spoon in the other. She was feeding an old, extremely skinny man, who looked
more like a cadaver than a living human being. The police had picked him on
the street that morning, and brought him to the Home of the Pure Heart. The
old woman was speaking words of comfort and love to him as she put one
spoonful after another in his mouth.

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My association is the City of Joy Aid. Its motto: a proverb I
learnt in Calcutta’s slums: ‘All that’s not given is lost.’

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I
moved closer towards this scene on the tips of my toes. I could now see the
eyes of the old man, so full of gratitude. He had certainly never been
attended to in this way in the course of his miserable life. And then,
suddenly, the old woman sensed my presence behind her. She turned around

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abruptly
and handed over to me the bowl of soup and the spoon.

"Continue
to feed him!" she ordered. "And love him," she added, before walking
away. That’s how, one morning, 26 years ago, I met Mother Teresa. This
encounter was going to change my life.

I had come to Calcutta after the world publication of my
bestselling book, Freedom at Midnight, which I had written with Larry
Collins. I wanted to show my gratitude to the Indian people for the beautiful
hospitality I had received in this country during my years of research. I
thought that in this enormous city, overcrowded with poor refugees of all
kinds, I would be sure to find an opportunity to share my book’s royalties
with some charitable organisation. And here I was, feeding a destitute in one
of the homes founded by the woman who had become the world’s greatest symbol
of charity.

That
same evening, Mother Teresa introduced me and my wife (also named Dominique)
to an Englishman who had dedicated his life since 1970 to children suffering
from leprosy, from some of the poorest colonies of the city. His name is
James Stevens. He had been a wealthy haberdasher in London, before devoting all
his financial resources to opening a home in Barrackpore to rescue, cure,
educate and train young boys and girls afflicted with leprosy. He called his
home ‘Udayan’—Resurrection. When I met him, he had run out of money to
support this island of hope in the midst of the most abject poverty. I handed
over to him the royalties I had brought from France, and told him,
"James, you will never close your home, Udayan." I also made an
extravagant promise to Mother Teresa. And that is how, for the last 26 years,
my beloved India has given me the opportunity to share the royalties from my
books and donations from readers with the less fortunate inhabitants of
Calcutta—a city I have learned to love so much that I planted within its
walls the story of one of my most successful books, The City of Joy.
This book, which sold nine million copies in over 40 languages and was made
into a $40 million film with Patrick Swayze as its star, gave me the
possibility to multiply my humanitarian actions for the benefit of millions of
have-nots, whom ‘India Shining’ has yet to rehabilitate and offer hope of a
decent future.

In these last 26 years of work with some marvellous ngos
that Dominique and I are lucky to be associated with (abc, bpbs, cipoda, hsp,
icod, shis, ubs, Udayan are only some of them), we have contributed to
rescuing and educating 10,000 children suffering from leprosy, and challenged
with heavy physical and cerebral handicaps; to curing one million
tuberculosis patients; to digging over 500 tubewells for clean drinking
water; to teaching reading and writing to the women of 2,000 villages; to
distributing microcredits to over 10,000 families...among other health,
education, self-help and economic development programmes.

And, with four hospital boats, we bring medical supplies
and relief to the isolated populations of 35 islands of the Sunderbans.
Recently our boats have been on the frontline of the disaster of the Sidr
Bangla cyclone. For all this work, the local population have made me
‘Benefactor of the Sunderbans’. Along with the title of ‘Citizen of Honour of
Calcutta’, bestowed upon me in 1985 by the Municipal Corporation of Calcutta,
these are certainly the most cherished awards I have received during my
philanthropic and literary life.

I have called the association I have founded to support my
many humanitarian causes in India ‘City of Joy Aid’. As the motto of this
association, I have chosen the most beautiful proverb, which I learnt from
the heroic people I met in the slums of Calcutta. The proverb which says:
"All that is not given is lost."

French writer Dominique Lapierre’s books on India include Freedom
at Midnight and City of Joy.

Outlook India readers who wish to contribute to the "Dominique
Lapierre City of Joy Foundation" may send donations (tax-deductible) c/o
Mr Francis Wacziarg & Mrs Priti Jain, A-58, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi,
110 013 Tel: 91 11 24 35 52 14; Fax: 91 11 24 35 11 12; www.cityofjoyaid.org

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Dominique Lapierre

OMINIQUE
LAPIERRE has touched many people through his life and work. His first taste of
fame followed the summer when he was 17 years old and left Paris with US$30,
worked aboard a ship, disembarked in the United States and managed a
30,000-mile jaunt around North America. This adventure led to Lapierre's first
best-selling book, A Dollar for a Thousand Miles. Since then, he has
continuously searched for new messages and stories. While completing military
service in 1954, Lapierre met an American soldier named Larry Collins. An
everlasting friendship-and a valuable partnership-sprang from this meeting.
Years later, they would collaborate on some of the century's most memorable
books including Is Paris Burning?, which was made into a major motion
picture boasting 30 international stars;...Or I'll Dress You in Mourning, O
Jerusalem, Freedom at Midnight, The Fifth Horseman, books read by millions
of readers in more than 30 languages.

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