Kolkata, Oct 18: As a tribute to Mother Teresa, a city-based entrepreneur plans to set up a diorama museum dedicated to the life and works of the "angel of mercy". "I have plans to set up a diorama museum on the life and works of Mother. I have had preliminary talks with the sisters (of Missionaries of Charity) about it. They have not turned down the proposal but they need more time to think over it," Subrata Gangopadhyay, who specialises in church interior design, said on the eve of Mother's beatification.
Gangopadhyay, who has a workshop and studio in the city's northern suburbs, said he had made nearly 30 fibre glass statues of Teresa, which have been bought by various Roman Catholic church organisations. "I try to make the statues as life-like as possible. For example, you may have noticed that the big toes in both her feet stuck out. We have maintained this to keep the statues as authentic as possible. Besides, we have also kept the wrinkles on her face," he said, adding the statues have been approved by Missionaries of Charity nuns.
Gangopadhyay, who has set up an anthropological museum at the Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Culture at Shillong, denied that he was making Teresa's statues for profit. "There is no question of profiteering from the statues. Mother remains an epitome of renunciation. She used to be gifted a lot of things, the best of which she would give away. Not profiting from the statues is our small way of paying tributes to her," he said. Bureau Report