
NAGAPATTINAM: Meena, the youngest survivor of the 2004 tsunami from Annai Sathya Government Children’s Home, Nagapattinam, married on Sunday. Erstwhile Nagapattinam Collector and present Additional Chief Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan IAS officiated the wedding.
On December 26, 2004, around 6,065 people died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami that struck Nagapattinam. A few days later, fisherfolk heard the cries of a child amid the wreckage left by the tides near Keechankuppam fishing hamlet. They rescued the child and handed her over to authorities.
Realising that hundreds of children have lost one or both parents in the natural calamity, the state established Annai Sathya Government Children’s Home in Nagapattinam. The infant rescued near Keechankuppam was admitted at the home and was named ‘Meena’.
Meena soon found companionship in three-year-old Sowmya who was similarly rescued in Velankanni. The two soon became sisters for life while Radhakrishnan and his wife Krithika became their ‘godparents’.
Even after getting transferred, Radhakrishnan kept visiting the home to ensure the children’s wellbeing. While the children were given foster care by their relatives as months and years went by, Sowmya and Meena remained. In 2018, Radhakrishnan was appointed as the monitoring officer of Gaja Cyclone relief works in Nagapattinam, where he met Meena as a Class 12 student. He felt shattered to know that she had still not got a foster home.
Learning about the incident, businessman Manivannan and his wife — an advocate named Malarvizhi — volunteered to foster them and supported their higher studies as they aspired to become nurses.
Radhakrishnan’s family conducted Sowmya’s wedding in 2022 and welcomed her daughter born last year. On Sunday Meena married P Manimaran, who works at a nationalised bank in Nagapattinam. Radhakrishnan solemnised the wedding at Sri Nellukkadai Mariamman Temple. Several survivors, like Tamilarasi, who had stayed and studied with Meena at the home, attended the wedding.
Speaking to TNIE, Radhakrishnan said, “Our family is immensely happy in conducting the wedding of the child we raised. Despite facing hardships, Tsunami survivors like Meena and Sowmya continue to progress in life with determination.”