マザーテレサ

百合子：お話する時間を取って頂きありがとうございます。私と友人はホーム・ページを教育的目的で作成するシンク・クエストというコンテストに出場しており、インドをテーマとして選び、言語の多様性、文化、宗教、人々の生活を紹介しようと思っています。同時にマザー・テレサと現代インドも取り上げようと考えています。

では、マザー・テレサについてお尋ねします。あなたは、著書の中でマザー・テレサを取り上げ、あなたの撮ったマザー・テレサの写真が沢山の雑誌に載りました。マザー・テレサは、どの様な人ですか？

ラグー・ライ:
マザー・テレサほど愛され敬われている人は外国においてもいないでしょう。彼女が亡くなったとき、雨が降っていました。数千人もの人々が行列をなして彼女を送りました。彼女には、沢山の愛があり、神様のように慕われていました。これは、インドだから起こったことです。彼女が他の回教徒の国か他の宗教の国に行っていれば、彼女はインドと同じように扱われなかったでしょう。彼女は、インドで最高の名誉（ガンジーや他の数人しか貰っていない）を得ました。私自身、彼女ほどパワフルな人間に会ったことがありません。
YURIKO: Thank you very much for giving me a chance to talk with you. I am a tenth grade student, and am planning to take part in ThinkQuest competition. Think Quest is a worldwide competition for the students to make their own homepages for educational purposes. My friend and I chose India as our theme to introduce how attractive India is by showing its diversity of language, culture, religion and the life of people. We also want to introduce Mother Teresa and modern India.

Well, I want to ask you about Mother Teresa. In your book you have dedicated a section to Mother Teresa. Your photographs of her have been published in many international magazines. What is like to be with her and what can you tell me about Mother Teresa?

RAGHU RAI: Let me tell you, Mother Teresa, the way she was loved and worshipped in India. I don't know if any other country of any other leader would have done it.

I know when she died it was raining. And there were thousands of people waiting in queue to go in and touch her feet. Absolutely amazing! One could cry looking at the people.

There was so much love and she was a Christian. She was like a goddess to them.

There was a photograph of a shop window where they put portraits of Mother
Teresa,....---our tribute to you forever.

This can happen only in India, nowhere else. If she goes to any other Muslim country or any other country where any other religions are practiced, I don't think she would have gotten, --- the government of India give her the highest honor, which they have given to Indira Gandhi and which they have given to few other individual in the county.

And for me personally she has been the most powerful human being I have ever met. So I don't care which religion.

写真を撮る動機

「写真を撮り始めたのは、偶然です。最初の写真が偶然良いものでした。新聞に掲載され、私自身写真家になると思いました。カメラを通して、目に見えるものよりも沢山のものが見えるようになりました。」
"Well, basically it was by chance that I started taking pictures. The first few pictures I took turned out to be good by accident. Then they got published in newspapers, so I thought that maybe I could become a photographer. As I started using the camera more regularly, I discovered that through the instrument I could see more than one has been able to see. It gives you a focus to search, to see, and to understand. So this is how my career started."

宗教

「ご存知のようにインドの大統領は回教徒でした。偉大な何人かの音楽家も回教徒です。ヒンズー教の音楽家の親分も何人かは回教徒です。インドは、様々な宗教から様々なことを取り入れました。」
"You know that the President of India has been a Muslim... Some of our great musicians are Muslim. Some of our Hindu musicians, their gurus are Muslim musicians... One of our Hindu musicians, in his house you see a portrait of his Muslim guru, which is hanging on top, and then the photograph of his Hindu gods. The Muslim guru is on top, the Hindu gods are below him. So, the culture of India is totally different... I'm not saying we're so great that we accept everything, but that we have evolved. They have included everything from every other region, every other culture."

ダライラマについて

「彼は、尊い人間で、神聖で、彼の側に居るといつも楽しいです。チベットとダライ・ラマについての本を出版しました。神聖な偉大な宗教人がインドを訪れ、活躍するのはありがたいことです。」
".... He is again one of the very precious human beings, because he is very spiritual, and it is always wonderful to be with him. I've done a book on Tibetans, and his Holiness, which is called "Tibet in Exile." ... To see some of the great religious spiritual leaders come and live in India and flourish there, it is very beautiful."