###mother Teresa (08) Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

In the year 1952, there came,
For the dying, a special home,
“Nirmal Hriday” by name,
In Kolkata, for the first time.

A woman, half eaten by rats and ants,
Was found uncared for in the street,
And when the Mother carried her,
The hospital refused to admit her.

When she protested o’er their refusal,
They took the sick in the hospital.
More people, in their last days,
Uncared for, were in the streets.

When she searched for a place,
An officer from the health services
Showed her an old guests-hall
Attached to the Kali Temple.

This hall then became a centre
For the sick and dying poor,
And was named “Nirmal Hriday, ”
Or the ‘Pure Heart’ from that day.

40000 men, women and children,
Since then, were taken in,
From the Kolkata Streets,
And half of them died in peace.

The rest were sent to other homes
Where they spent their days
In a homely surroundings,
Forgetting their sufferings.

They had ambulances, doctors,
Medical equipment, nurses,
And many well wishers,
Helping them as volunteers.

To serve the poorest of the poor,
Around the world,450 centres
Came up well right from Kolkata
To New York and then to Albania.

For more than 45 years
She extended her services
For the poor, dying, unwanted
People all o’er the world.

At first, the Hindus shouted
When the sisters shifted
The dying persons to the hall
Adjacent to the temple.

But their attitude changed
When, at her risk, she shifted
A cholera-affected son of a priest
To her home for treatment.

In 1953, “Shishu Bhavan, ”
A home for orphaned children
And abandoned infants
Came there into existence.

Many such homes, she had opened,
In India, and other parts of the world.
Some of them studied, some got married,
Like this, they were rehabilitated.

Thus a single person changed,
The face of the suffering world,
By her kindness, and compassion,
And her will power and dedication.