Football legend Diego Maradona on Sunday realised his long-cherished dream of visiting the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata and prayed at Mother Teresa's abode. Maradona and his girlfriend Veronica, on the second day of their visit to the City of Joy, on Sunday arrived at Mother House, from where Mother Teresa operated her worldwide mission of mercy for the poor and dying, as a huge crowd thronged the road outside. Amidst strict security with hardly anyone including the media allowed inside, the coach of the Argentine soccer team stayed there for over half an hour praying, learning about the Mother's work from the nuns and kissing children, mostly orphans who lived there. Maradona and Veronica were welcomed by the nuns and was greeted by children standing in rows who offered the soccer wizard flowers as they visited Mother House at 11.10 am. Maradona, who had earlier said that one of the main reasons for his trip to India was to visit the Missionaries of Charity headquarter, then stood near the flower-bedecked tomb of Mother Teresa and lit a candle amid prayers by the nuns. He also prayed for a while with hands folded close to his chest, before kissing the marble tomb. Veronica followed suit. Sister Nirmala, Superior General of the order, was also present. A nun who speaks Spanish briefed Maradona about the place and showed him around before he wrote a few words in the visitors' book which has earlier been embellished with comments from former US president Bill Clinton and the then first lady Hillary. Maradona remained there for over 40 minutes, extending his schedule for just 15 minutes. Before leaving, he said ‘bye bye’ to the little children who looked flummoxed as to who the visitor was. He kissed some and shook hands with some of them, while stroking their heads. Coming out with some books on the Mother, he was again cheered by hundreds of hysteric fans who were waiting to have a glimpse of the soccer star who boasted of the "hand of God". Eminent Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Sunil Thakur, who has written a book on Mother, presented a copy to Maradona. "He flipped through some of the pages and told me he would go through it," Thakur said. The Missionaries of Charity had been founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1950 when she set up her own order with approval from the Vatican aiming to help people in need, including the sick, mostly lepers, poor and those discarded by the society. Subsequently, she came to be known as the Angel of Mercy. The frenzied fans broke down the police barricade opposite the Mother House on the arterial AJC Bose Road in a bid to have a better view. Maradona, however, repeated his Saturday's act of thumping his chest with his hand and blowing kisses in the air as if saying ‘I am for all of you’. Wearing a broad grin all along, he rolled down the car windows and waved and thumped his chest before getting into the Mercedes which sped off.
