Nivedita

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FROM: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=209226

 

Kolkata, November 10: At the personal initiative of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee the West Bengal government is going to acquire the house of Sister Nivedita at Bosepara Lane at Baghbazar. The government will acquire it and then hand it over to the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission.The government’s move came following a request from the Mission itself which requested the chief minister to acquire the house, now occupied by various tenants.It was on October 15 that the Mission wrote to the chief minister requesting him to take over the house. On October 30 Bhattacharjee wrote back to them saying he had acceded to their request and the government would take the required steps for this purpose.Today the CM secretariat received a letter from Prabrajika Amalprana, general secretary of the Mission, who thanked the chief minister saying they had plans to utilise the place in a proper way.However, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission refused to divulge the details of their plans about the property that they are going to get. ‘‘We won’t tell you what we are going to do about it. Please forget about it,’’ an official of the Mission told Newsline, rather curtly.Sister Nivedita, after she came to Kolkata, stayed at this house for quite a few years. It was at this house where Saradama, wife of Ramakrishna Paramhans, stayed for some time. It was also at this house that Sister Nivedita started the first girls’ school of Kolkata.Again, when the scourge of plague broke out in Kolkata and hundreds of people began to die, Nivedita came out on the streets and began relief operations on her own. She was even seen cleaning the streets of Baghbazar with a broom, attending to patients afflicted with the malady. In her job she got inspiration and active help from Swami Vivekananda.