Kolkata recalls King Charles's '80 visit as Prince of Wales

KOLKATA: King Charles III, then a strapping 31-year-old Prince of Wales, had been fascinated by a trip to Kolkata in 1980 during which he visited the Mother House and met Mother Teresa for the first time. Their meeting, held behind closed doors, had lasted more than 20 minutes and the British monarch could recall it more than 35 years later when social worker Sunita Kumar, who had been present at the Mother House that day, gifted a photograph of Mother Teresa with him that was clicked soon after they met.But while Prince Charles had looked extremely happy after interacting with Mother Teresa, he was soon left teary-eyed when a boy at the Shishu Bhavan, the orphanage run by Missionaries of Charity, held on to his leg and refused to let him go. "The Prince of Wales attended a song-and-dance program that had been arranged for him at Shishu Bhavan. He enjoyed it and then at the end something inexplicable happened for which neither the Prince nor the rest of us were ready. One of the young boys, who had performed, caught hold of his leg and refused to let it go. Initially taken aback, Charles gently put his arm around the boy's shoulder and was moved to tears. We were all left with tears in our eyes," recalled Kumar, who had been close to Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity.Three decades later, Kumar met Prince Charles at the Buckingham Palace and gifted him a photograph of him with Mother Teresa taken at the Mother House that day. It has a young Prince in a light grey suit with a garland around his neck. The Prince was accorded a formal welcome and Mother had welcomed her personally, recalled Kumar."My husband and I had visited UK to watch the Wimbledon a few years ago. I knew the Queen's lady-in-waiting Susan Hussey who arranged a meeting with the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. The idea was to get the photograph signed by him which I had failed to do then. He had some vivid recollections of the day and gladly signed the photograph," said Kumar.The photograph was also signed by Mother Teresa who also wrote a few words: "God bless you all" below the photograph. "I got it framed and it's there on my wall now. It will be there forever," said Kumar.