Nellie massacre: Mother's love healed a child in pain

GUWAHATI: As the Vatican's Hole See bestowed sainthood upon Calcutta's Saint of the Gutters, sexagenarian Sister Annalisa had a bittersweet trip down memory lane. It was the aftermath of the Nellie massacre in 1983. More than 3,000 people were killed in an attack by indigenous groups against immigrant Muslims. In the backdrop of such indiscriminate violence, Sister Annalisa reminisced how Saint Teresa consoled a two-year-old girl, a survivor of the horrendous massacre.
Annalisa was a part of the team with St Teresa that visited Nellie in Nagaon district, about 100 km from Guwahati, to reach out to victims of the massacre. "I saw people buried in mass graves," Sister Annalisa recalls.
Sister Annalisa told TOI, "There was no one who could pacify the child. She was left vulnerable and exposed because of the massacre. It was only when Mother picked her up and brought her close to her bosom that she stopped crying. I saw it and I felt an aura of divinity."
That girl was affectionately called Priya, short for Priyadarshini.
According to the sisters at Missionaries of Charity, she was given up by her father for adoption. It is believed that her mother died during the massacre.
"Maybe Priya's father came to the conclusion that he could no longer take care of her. Maybe he had other children to take care of. But whatever the reasons, Priya was brought to our home and admitted in April, 1983," said Sister Augustinette of the Missionaries of Charity.
Priya was brought to the city and taken to the home of the Missionaries of Charity in the Bharalumukh locality of the city. A few months later, she was sent to the Missionaries of Charity home in Calcutta.
"She was later adopted by a family from abroad. We don't know which country she went to. We only hope that she is happy now," Sister Della Grace said.