Internationally renowned author Dominique Lapierre is critically ill.
According to his friend in Kolkata, Jesuit Father Gaston Roberge, Lapierre fell down at his home in France and has been in a coma for several days now.
Father Roberge said the Padma Bhushan recipient
is on ventilator and other artificial life support systems.
The doctors, Father Roberge added, fear that Lapierres illness, which have affected his brain, could be terminal.
A long time well wisher of Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity, Lapierres Kolkata connection dates back to his bestseller book The City of Joy, based on life in this teeming metropolis and his critical film on Mother Teresa (the first feature film on Mother Teresa, released in 1997), In the Name of Gods Poor.
A large portion of the royalties of his books have been ploughed back into his social service NGO, Udayan, on the outskirts of Kolkata and in setting up floating dispensaries for the people of the Sunderbans.
A prayer meet will be held at the tomb of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata, at the headquarters of Missionaries of Charity, for the speedy recovery of Lapierre tomorrow.
PHOTO CREDIT: moonmentum.com