KOTTAYAM: Former additional chief secretary to the government of Kerala and noted scholar Dr D Babu Paul is an ardent devotee of Mother Teresa. He has in his puja room a picture of the Mother placed on a chair in which she sat when she came to his house in 1986. Dr Paul, who was then chairman of the Cochin Port Trust, has kept the chair as the most holy object in his home as he was sure the Mother would be a saint one day. Dr Paul has mentioned in his autobiography 'Kadha Ithu Vare' about the transformation that he underwent after the visit of Mother Teresa.
“It was in 1971 while I was coordinating the Idukki hydal project that I had read a few books about the Mother,” he told DC about his experience of his first seeing Mother Teresa. “The one book I read was Something Beautiful For God, written by Malcolm Muggeridge. The reading of the book attracted me towards her, and I read a few more books about her. She visited Kottayam in 1972 when I was the Idukki collector was stationed in Kottyam, but I was unable to speak to her. However, I accidentally touched the tip of her sari which was a great experience. I can remember a power passing through me.”
There was a procedural problem in Cochin Port Trust related to Mother Teresa's house, he recalled. “The nuns of Missionaries of Charity came to me and I solved the problem in my normal style. That turned out a great help for them. Later when Mother visited Kochi, a call came from her convent saying that the Mother would like to say thanks to me. I told them I would call on her, but they said that Mother would like to call on me. After she came and went I had the good sense to take the chair that she sat and I keep it away. I removed that chair from my drawing room, and placed it separately.
I knew that she would one day become a saint. I told my son to continue to keep the chair like that. But after she was beatified I took that chair to the prayer corner in my house. Somebody gave me a picture of the Mother which I placed on the chair. That is the focal point of my pooja room. My day begins before her picture." He said that Mother advised him to marry off his daughter after her MA and then continue her education. Dr Paul said that though he received many favours in his life through the intervention of Mother Teresa, he would not like to mention it since it were among his personal prayers.
