CUDDALORE: "Christmas or not, no compromise on practice,” football coach S Mariappan told a group of chirpy teenage girls. Their weekend tradition was to add lustre to the Silver Beach sand with sharp kicks and passes. However, since Mariappan was tasked with urgent schoolwork on Sunday, practice was shifted to the Anna playground in Cuddalore.
As curtains rose that morning, two decades ago, the girls began warming up. The skies were pregnant with clouds and minds with doubts as to whether the rain would interrupt. Nonetheless, the game began. Good humour abated as the scorecard ticked, and then the office phone rang.
The tsunami had wrecked the Tamil Nadu coast and Silver Beach too bowed to fate. “The call was from my wife,” recalls Mariappan (72). “Struggling to catch her breath, she said giant waves destroyed the beach and that seawater had entered our home. I thought she was joking. But suddenly, the power supply got cut and the telephone went silent.
Rushing home, the girls and I saw harrowing scenes of people fleeing their homes, fear etched on their faces. Human bodies and livestock carcasses lay scattered around us. There were cars and boats perched atop houses. That’s when I realised that the decision to shift the practice venue had saved the girls’ lives,” he said.
Mariappan had started the Indira Gandhi Academy for Sports and Education (IGASE) in 2003. Though he initially focused on training boys, his work at a government school in Manjakuppam brought him in contact with girls from Annai Sathya Government Children’s Home, who studied at the same school. “When the girls approached me, I hesitated due to timing issues. But their persistence won me over,” he said.
A year later, the coach and his students stood on the stormy beach wondering how they’d recover from a tragedy of this magnitude. As some sort of normalcy began to return, the team of girls passed the ball on to other survivors. Soon, 33 more girls, all survivors of tsunami, found their feet in a pair of boots. “Many had lost one or both parents. I used my salary to support their training,” the 72-year-old said.
With the support of well-wishers, he provided them with food, accommodation, and education. “As they grew older, the girls had to leave the government home. To keep them together, I arranged for them to stay at my house and later rented a house for them. My wife and sons were a pillar of support during this time despite the financial strain.”
Football was not a leisure activity for the girls, it was a matter of life and livelihood. The girls went on to represent Puducherry in tournaments and won with thumping scores. The teams with IGASE players have won the CM’s Trophy five times, and clinched medals in inter-university championships. Eleven of his trainees have represented India under various categories, while nine became sub-inspectors in the Tamil Nadu police. Among them, six sub-inspectors and nine international players were survivors of the tsunami.
The girls annoyed at being showcased as ‘tsunami victims’ at several events decided not to identify themselves as ‘victims’ any more. One of the sub-inspectors, who lost her relatives and home in the disaster, on condition of anonymity said, “During our teenage years, we found the coach’s way of training strict and often resented it. But, now we realise how it contributed to shaping us as successful individuals. We live without fear or worry, thanks to him.”
“Many of them pursued higher education, including MPhil and PhD degrees. They balanced studies and football, with some even topping their schools in exams. They received free education at St Joseph’s College of Arts and Science in Cuddalore, thanks to Fr R Ratchagan and Fr Peter Rajendran, former secretaries of college,” the coach said. Despite his age, Mariappan continues to train kids at a panchayat ground in Uchimedu. His efforts have been recognised with numerous awards, and his work even inspired a popular Tamil movie.
Two decades after tsunami hit the shores on December 26, 2004, TNIE captures the devastation, lingering trauma & resilience of coastal communities