The miracle seems to have worn off for Monica Besra, who claimed to have been cured of cancer after praying to Mother Teresa. She and her husband, Selco Murmu, are back to making ends meet, far from the glare of the days of the beatification.A few campaign trails found their way to the Murmu family but they weren’t interested. ‘‘Some people in our village came to us to seek our support for their parties but we did not pay much attention to what they said. We are not bothered about the elections.’’The 35-year-old mother of four sons and a daughter in Nakore village in South Dinajpur became popular worldwide when she claimed she had recovered from a tumour after praying before a picture of Mother Teresa. The Vatican examined the claim and declared it to be true. That was when the good times started.On October 19, last year, Pope John Paul II beatified the Mother in a glittering ceremony at the Vatican City and bestowed her with the title — ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’. Monica was there when the announcement was made, along with a few nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, and received blessings from the Pope. ‘‘Those 21 days when I was at Vatican with some other nuns of the Missionaries of Charity were like dream days. I was taken good care of. Even now, I wonder whether that had really happened in my life,’’ Monica says. ‘‘Now everybody seems to have forgotten me.’’The family had held a ‘thanksgiving day’ on April 22 to celebrate Monica’s recovery. ‘‘We had thanksgiving so late because we had no money and even now, we did it with great difficulty,’’ says Selco. ‘‘I had mortgaged five bighas to arrange for money when Monica was sick. I have not yet been able to recover that.
