Not many of us can claim to have a life like Gautam Lewis, abandoned at two, adopted at five and now a successful entrepreneur and flying instructor who has made a film on the person who rescued him. But then, not many of us have had the good fortune of being “carried to a church every Sunday by Mother Teresa” herself.
Lewis, a London-based filmmaker skipped invitation from the Vatican to attend the sainthood ceremony of the late Mother to pay tribute to his rescuer in her “own” city.
In 1979, Mother Teresa found Gautam, then a polio-stricken toddler, abandoned in the streets of Howrah, near Kolkata. Gautam Lewis,was later adopted by a British nuclear physicist from the Missionaries of Charity. Still in crutches, due to his childhood struggle with polio, Gautam is now not only a commercial pilot but also runs a training school for disabled pilots in London.
He is here to present his film, Mother Teresa & Me, will be screened at the ongoing Mother Teresea International Film Festival at the Nandan film complex in Kolkata. He wanted to make a film on Mother Teresa because he felt the present generation is losing touch with her. “The younger generation needs to know who she was. What she did for us,” says Gautam.
He told PTI “The film is to celebrate the life of that lady whom I call my second mother as she and her nuns had rescued me,” adding that he moved around the city and outskirts to retrace his roots.He remembers how he used to go to the church every Sunday with the Mother till he moved abroad following adoption at the age of seven.