Tsunami - Three Years Later

The below story was published in the Bangalore Mirror edition on the 26th December, 2007. Since I was back in the garden city after a gap of more than 14 years, working in New Delhi, Bhopal and Mumbai, got very interested to do a lot of stories so that my old friends could know that I am back in town. So when the 3rd Tsunami anniversary was going to be observed I hit upon this idea to cover the Bangaloreans who had witnessed the Tsunami havoc and survived, to retell a tale of how they managed to survive. So my close friend in BM Jacob Benjamin knew of one family which had lost 6 of their member during their annual visit to Velankani which was one of the worst affected by the tsunami carnage. Jacob and me started to work on the story one week in advance and started to link one family to another and so on till we managed to get 5 families which had either lost a member or survived to tell their story.
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Bangalore Mirror visited five families on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the tsunami, and found that December 26, 2004 has left deep scars on the hearts of tsunami survivors.

HAUNTED BY NIGHTMARES OF VELANKANI

Mention Velankani, and 10-year-old Lilly Jennifer still shrinks back in fear. It has been three years since she went to the holy shrine on the beach front with 15 other family members, but the tsunami ordeal is etched deeply into her mind.
'I wake up with nightmares almost every night with thoughts of hundreds of dead bodies around me,' she says trying to hold back tears. 'I was six years old and my father Lawrence and mother Sagailatha saved all our family members lives. They ensured that all our family members were pulled into the church,' she recalls.

'I was playing with my sisters Lourth Daina (8 years) and Sagai Sindhu (7 years) along the beach and all the others were sitting on the beach and watching us,' she recalls. And the waters came gushing in.... On December 26, 2004, more than 1.5 laks people were washed away by the gushing waters of the sea. Christening a child at Velankani is a ritual in many families in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lilly's family is one among them. In 2004, they were there for the christening of little James, Lilly's cousin. 'I will never go to Velankani for christening my children,' she says vehemently.

THREE FRIENDS WHO SURVIVED

Luke and John Bosco were swimming in the calm waters. All of a sudden, they were taken up by the powerful waters - right up to the height of a coconut tree.
Luke emerged from the water once and was sucked back inside. He woke up an hour later on the terrace of a two-storey building 500 meters from the shore. John was holding onto the fishing net which was stuck to an advertising board on the same building. 'It is god's fortune that we survived and keep going to Velankani every year to thank Mother Mary for showing mrcy on us,' they say.
Luke had a broken arm while John had fractures in a leg and an arm. 'We then searched for Cedric, our friend who was with his nephew. We found Cedric with a cut in is stomach and both his hands and legs broken. We mustered enough strength to lift him to the closest medical camp.'

LOST HER PARENTS, BUT SAVED HER CHILDREN

Not all families are as lucky as the Lawrence family. Mary Agatha lost her parents and younger sister to the angry seas, but managed to save her two children and herself.
Holding back tears, she recalls that fateful day when her parents Albert (62) and Anjalina (58) left for Nagapattinam early in the morning with her younger sister Mary Basilica (28) to buy fish.
'They left me with my children Mary Margaret (3) an Shashi Kumar (6) in the room and said they would return after purchasing fish from the wholesale market 15 kilometers away. They hired an auto rickshaw around 8:15 am and were suposed to return by 9:30 am.'
Suddenly, the walls of the room broke and the water gushed in. 'All I could see was black water all around me as I held my son's wrist tight and kept my daughter on my hip and ran to the top-most floor of the hotel.
From there, I could see the water reaching the top of coconut trees. Hundreds of people were rushing towards the hotel terrace. All around there was water, and people were trying to latch onto whatever came their way. Children were being washed away in the muddy waters,' she recalls in horror.

Later, she spoke to the driver of the auto while searching for her family at the government hospital at Nagapattinam. The driver told her that they had purchased 2 KG of fish and were heading back towards Velankani. In the auto they were discussing various family issues, planning next year's visit, and her sister was regretting the fact that her husband Ravi was not with them.
The auto driver suddenly saw huge waves of water gushing out of the sea towards the road. He jumped out of the running auto only to wake up in the hospital with almost all his limbs broken.
Agatha called her brother Christy from Bangalore and together they searched for their parents and sister all over Nagapattinam. They found the mangled remins of the auto on the beach front, but could not find their parents and sister. 'That is when I realised that I had lost my parents and sister,' she sys.
'Ravi Kumar, my sister's husband, is staying in KGF and has refused to remarry. He visits Nagapattinam every year to pray for the soul of his wife and my parents. I am unable to since I fear the sea and cannot afford to go there,' Agatha adds.

VERY FEW SURVIVORS

Cedric Daily, hails from an Anglo-Indian family. He lost his father, mother, sister, niece and nephew in the tsunami. Eleven members of the family travelled to Velankani, but only five of them came back. Cedric is now in Velankani to offer his third year of rememberence for his lost relatives. Thomas Daily the Uncle of Cedric shared his family's story with us:
'On that fateful day I had got up very early and taken my gransons Rocky and Shane for a walk along the beach and fun with them till 8:30 am. I then brought them back to the room where the rest of the family members were ready to attend the 9:30 am mass. They asked me to have a bath and meet them at the church. That was the last time I saw them alive.
As I got down from the room to walk up to the church, I could see a lot of cows and some people running towards me shouting that water has entered the town. I did not have enough time to even think as the gushing waters came and took me with it. I kept looking for something to hold, and I finally got the fence of the Home for the Aged. I held onto the railings as tightly as possible.
I do not know how long I was there, but when the water receded below my hip level, I gathered enough courage and started searching for my family. Sirst, I saw my nephew walking alone stark naked without any clothes and asked him where the rest of them were. He started crying and I realised that they had been killed or washed away, and in a fit of rage I started cursing the gods.

I saw my brother Eugene Daily. His body was stuck between a door and a boat. Then I saw my grandson Rocky. His body was atop a lamp post with half his head missing. I continued to search for others. I saw Luke standing alone on the beach and gazing at the sand. He told me that he was looking for Shane who was with hime when the waters came in.
Later in the afternoon, I saw my niece Marina Daily and granddaughter Carron Daily. Their bodies were lined up along with hundreds of other bodies. I left the bodies of the all the four members for the mass burial as they were badly damaged.
Every three months, I visit Velankani in the hope that some day God will show me the living faces o my Grandson Shane Daily and sister-in law Rosaline Daily. Some of the locals say that they saw a boy being picked up by another family and a lady who is disturbed was seen roaming the streets of Velankani.