Sister Nirmala in Kathmandu

I was somewhere in Dakshinkaali. Then a call came from by editor. I was needed within an hour in a program that was going to be organized by Kathmandu’s Missionaries of Charity to welcome their Calcuta-based head Sister Nirmala. I was keenly following her Nepal entrance for the last few days. She had entered Nepal via Jhapa and flights cancelled because of foggy weather. Her team hired a microbus and was scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu today after an overnight stay in Hetauda. An hour of time to reach (Mitrapark) Kathmandu and, thankfully, a cab was waiting for me or so it appeared.

I arrived on time but Sister Nirmala was no where in sight. People at the Charity’s office were anxiously waiting for her arrival. Children and women from a welfare organization Maiti Nepal were queuing up to extend their warm regards to the nun.

She came and she patiently received all flowers, garlands and khadas from the hosts. Being the close relative of the Sister, Nepal Students’ Union leader Biso Prakash Sharma was working as a cameraman to take the entire scene in this digital video camera. But his not-being-so-tall problem was causing his a bit problems to capture some of the important moments.

Sister finally entered the office, went up to the floor and entered into a room to offer a quick prayer to the Christ. Photographers wanted the Sister to come outside, stand in front of the door so that they could shot a picture with the Sister’s idol Mother Teresa’s photo on the background. With the help of Maiti Nepal’s Anuradha Koirala, photographers mission to bring the sister outside saw a success.

That was the moment for reporters to file a few questions. And I found myself the only one asking her questions. And they were not very special. How was the journey to Kathmandu? How does it feel to be here? And stuffs like that.

Later on, a fatty man tried to block us from entering the premise. Us include Sangeeta Rijal of the Kathmandu Post and myself. He was like, ‘no you can’t see her now, come back tomorrow.’ You always find people like that fat man who try to work as obstacles between the press and the source. After we introduced ourselves, he changed his mind saying that though other newspapers haven’t covered the Sister’s visit properly, Kantipur had done fantastic job. He was referring to reports published in the paper in the last few days. I wasn’t much impressed because of his pervious behavior. “This old woman in a white saari and sandal is so down to earth and simple that I don’t think if she even care about if anyone has written about her trip or not,” said Sangeeta. “But people like this man are more interested in such stuffs and they are the one who are best at selling the Sisters name for their benefit.”