After bidding fare-well to the 'marble city of Jabalpur' from the flight, Mother General and Mother Marie Rose landed well in time at 'Amchi Mumbai'. Mother Hilda Marie Antoinette and Sr Precilla Cynthia waited outside to welcome them with fresh flower bouquets.
Upon reaching Home Mother General got down at the main gate. From there, the Men staff dressed in "kurtha" and turban, led Mother and Mother Marie Rose from gate to the portico, performing a 'legim', a vigorous Maharashtrian folk dance almost calisthenics using a small wooden instrument with jingling cymbals. There, all the Residents awaited to welcome them.
Then two ladies in traditional attire, anointed the forehead with sandal wood 'tilak', a cooling balm for the soul and spirit. Another Resident sprinkled Rose water; all of them sang a 'welcome song', two AJJ members welcomed them with shawls, two Residents garlanded them with pearl garlands and two men smartly dressed in suits gave them bouquets of flowers, while others held a welcome placard near the entrance door, to show their love and warmth for coming to bustling Bombay.
on February 8th, Mother and Mother Assistant visited the residents in the dining rooms and distributed the souvenir gifts to them.
At 12.30 noon Mother General distributed souvenir gifts to the devoted employees of the Home.
At 3 pm the Holy Eucharist was celebrated in Marathi, presided by the new bishop of Vasai, Most Rev. Thomas D'Souza and concelebrated by seven other priests, including the parish priest.
Soon after Mass, Mother greeted the Bishop and the priests; gave them the souvenir gifts while the crowd went to the dining hall of the 2nd floor transformed into a stage. Then, Mother and Mother assistant Marie Rose entered with the Bishop as everyone applauded. An Associate Jeanne Jugan gave a welcome speech and Mother offered a bouquet of flowers to the Bishop. Thereafter, Mother unveiled the souvenir a little boat sailing on the waters with St Jeanne Jugan's picture on the side saying, "Blessed be God, Thank you... on the flat wooden stand at the bottom of the waters that would be distributed to the invitees.
On 12th February, around 9.15 a.m. the Sisters, Residents, AJJ and Employees gathered at the entrance to say ‘good-bye’ to Mother General and Mother Assistant Marie Rose. As they wished and shook hands an employee brought a bunch of colourful gas balloons with the wordings of our Mother St. Jeanne Jugan and handed over the strings to Mother and she released them in the air as everybody clapped their hands. It was nice to see them go straight up as though the blue sky was waiting to embrace them with open arms. Then they started on the departure journey. As the flight took off in the air, prayers too went up, to get at least 21 postulants out of the immense metropolitan city with a population of nearly 21 million people.
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