Calcutta mourns the woman the world called Mother

BY CHRISTOPHER THOMAS IN CALCUTTA TENS OF THOUSANDS Of mostly poor Calcuttans, some in the ragged clothes of the slums, queued this week for hours in monsoon rain to catch a glimpse of Mother Teresa in a glass casket in St Thomas's Church. India's President, Prime Minister and every other major political leader across the country payed lavish tribute to the Catholic nun, who they said had touched the heart of largely Hindu India.
Her burial at Mother House, headquarters of the Missionaries of Char ity Order, was in response to her request to be interred where nonstop prayers were held every day of the year.
Her grave will be in a small room that will become a permanent monument to the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Calcutta city officials announced that Mother House had been listed as a heritage building — an acknowledgement of its symbolic importance, as the place where the Missionaries of Charity began, and certainly not of any architectural merit. Mother House is a square, unlovely block, reached down a narrow alley.
Giving her a state funeral, normally reserved for Presidents and Prime Ministers, is a rare honour. She will be taken on a gun carriage form St Thomas's Church tomorrow to an indoor table tennis stadium for Mass attended by up to 12,000 people, before travelling to Mother House for her funeral attended by close friends.
India has bestowed its top awards on Mother Teresa, a naturalised Indian, and it is determined to preserve her legend_ But voices of dissent have been heard and ascerbic article in Calcutta's Telegraph suggested that the city owed her nothing — that indeed it was she who owed something to Calcutta for propelling her to international fame and prestige.
The article said Calcutta had offered its poor as "stepping stones" for Mother Teresa. This is rare vitriol and perhaps the start of a reappraisal of Indian feelings towards the Macedonian-born nun.
In lifeiaer status ma it almost impossible to criticise tier; now she is dead some Indians who privately disapproved of her will nriake her voices heard.
Christopher Thomas is South Asie2 Correspondent of The Tir-nes