Calcutta, India

The largest metropolis in India, Calcutta is a vibrant city. The Gateway to India, till 1912, and the capital of the Raj in India, it still bears the Victorian imprint on its streets and structures. A city just about ready to burst at the seams, Calcutta is home to more than 10 million people. It is the commercial nerve-centre of the East, with major industrial plants, textile mills and corporate units. Regal edifices, grubby alleys, bustling bazaars, elegant hotels, people from all walks of life - Calcutta has it all.

Calcutta is a major railhead and is well - connected to the rest of the country. An international airport, Calcutta is connected to most parts of the world by several major airlines as well as Air India. Within India, the Indian Airlines and other domestic airlines link the city with other major cities in the country.

Calcutta is a city of baffling paradoxes, a city that leaves its stamp on one's mind ... forever.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

We cannot mention the city of Calcutta without talking about Mother Teresa. A woman in exile, in a tiny body which bore signs of privation, a smiling Christian, a sweet sister who placed the great and the little of the earth in the position of examining our conscience, the language of which needs help to understand the mystery of this modern witnessing. She changed the criteria of the world without words, but with her concrete hymn to life, singing each day while welcoming newborn life, from caressing wounded life, sharing agoinizing life, in giving a smile and dignity to death.

Her mission began each day, before dawn, before the Eucharist. In the silence of contemplation, Mother Teresa of Calcutta could hear the cry of Christ on the cross, 'I thirst'. This cry gathered in the depths of her heart, forcing her journey on the streets of Calcutta and of all the margins of the world, to find Jesus among the poor, among the abaondoned, the dying, with generous dedication. She served all human needs with dignity and respect always: she made those destroyed by life feel the tenderness of God the Father, lover of all creatures. Mother Teresa did not lose the occasions for underlining in each moment the love for life. 'Charity, if it is to be fruitful, ought to tire us'. 'When we care for a sick and needy person we touch Jesus' suffering body and this contact makes us heroic, makes us forget our repugnance and our natural tendencies. We need the eyes of a profound faith to see Christ in the maimed bodies and dirty clothes in which is hidden the fairest among the sons of men. We need the hands of Christ to touch this body wounded with sorrow and suffering. An immense love, not limited, which only gives. It is so much more an act of love that calls us to overcome disgust, love asks so much more, perhaps because it represent help offered but the Lord, hidden amongst the rags of the poor. There are now 4,000 sisters of Mother Teresa, in 120 countries.