NAGAPATTINAM: A covenant between the sea and seafarers was broken on that day after Christmas. Waves invaded Tamil Nadu’s shores, leaving wounds no amount of time could heal. Twenty years later, survivors of the disaster in hamlets that dot the coast still relive the tsunami nightmare that claimed close to eight thousand lives in Tamil Nadu.
R Sankar (then 28), hailing from Tharangambadi (Mayiladuthurai district), was working from the Pudukkottai harbour when tragedy struck. At a time when mobile phones were uncommon and few had heard of a tsunami, Sankar learnt of the giant waves hitting the shores from a TV alongside others at the harbour.
A few of the men quickly hired a Tata Sumo and started for home. The scenes that unfolded during the journey are still vivid in Sankar’s memory: the lines of bodies unending, hundreds of houses shattered like sand castles. Before long, they decide to take a circumnavigatory route to avoid this sight.
His worst fear was realised when he finally reached his village. The waves had levelled his thatched house and taken both his daughters – three-year-old Sabarmathi and months-old Sameera. His wife Sekari (then 22) had undergone a tubectomy after Sameera was born. After the tsunami, the couple approached multiple hospitals to get the procedure reversed in the hope of becoming parents again. All their efforts turned futile. Their attempts to adopt a male baby from a few orphanages also went in vain.
“We don’t have a child to light our funeral pyre,” the now middle-aged couple teared up. The disaster took not just his children and home but his livelihood in the form of his motorised boat as well.
“We later received a boat as a donation. But, it was of substandard quality. I sold it after two years to settle our debts. I spent the next decade toiling in boats owned by others to help my siblings settle in life. My wife and I still reside in a dilapidated house and grind away each day to keep body and soul together,” he said. They may have picked up the pieces, but none can dare assuage them that time heals all wounds.
TN’s coastline stretches long with grief. Ramya, Saranya and Rathinadevi were among those who met with a watery grave when the killer waves swamped Pattinacherry in Karaikal district on Boxing Day. The siblings had accompanied their grandmother to their casuarina grove when the tsunami struck. Murugaiyan’s (62) and Raniammal’s (55) eyes welled up speaking of their lost daughters.
Days after the disaster, the couple’s eldest son, M Sabarivel (then 19), returned from Jegathapattinam to help search for the bodies.
“My father doted on my sisters more than my brother Murugavel and myself. He was traumatised. He hardly ever set off to sea after that and became addicted to alcohol. We sold our boat as we sank into debt. I found work on other boats, while my mother began to sell fish. Together, we pulled out our family from misery and made my brother study,” said Sabarivel, who is now married and has two children.
A Arjunan (then 21) from Vizhunthamavadi village in Nagapattinam district survived the carnage but lost two motorised boats. “I had been fishing ever since dropping out of school at the age of 14. The sea never scared me until that fateful day. My mental fortitude was shaken,” he said.
According to the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), post the tsunami, many children suffered from lack of sleep, reduced appetite, decreased concentration in studies, increased nightmares and ruminations of disaster, while elders suffered from depression.
At a recent public lecture, Dr R Thara, co-founder of SCARF, which was roped in by the state government to provide counselling to tsunami-affected communities, recalled how children along the coast suffered from post-traumatic stress disaster and were reluctant to return to school as a result.
In the months that followed, several nonprofit organisations from across the world came forward to build houses and donate boats. However, several fishers did not have the stomach to venture back into the sea. “Most of us were traumatised. But, we knew we had to return to make ends meet. Eight months and several counselling sessions later, we set sail again,” Arjunan said. Six years later, he married Vijayalakshmi and slowly learned to hope again.
Reunion for children’s home inmates held
Nagapattinam: Around 40 people, from an early group of kids accommodated in Annai Sathya Government Children’s Home, gathered for a reunion on Sunday, ahead of the tsunami anniversary. The state had established the home in the aftermath of the disaster. Dr J Radhakrishnan, who served as Thanjavur collector when the waves struck, presided over the event.
“My wife and I are overwhelmed by the kids’ affection,” said Radhakris-hnan, who is now Additional Secretary (in-charge), Co-operation, Food, and Consumer Protection Department. Tamilarasi V (35), a former inmate who now works at the home as a trainer, said, “We meet during December. But this time, it is special. We also recreated a group picture we had taken years ago.”