Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

A girl's tryst with tsunami

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI, DEC. 26. "Were you in it too," was the instant query from little Piuli Paul when she was asked about her tryst with the tsunami on Sunday morning.

She miraculously escaped after being washed away by the big waves that hit the Chennai coast. "I was in water for a long time. I was perhaps unconsciousness," she recalled.

A third-standard student from Balgwin Girls' High School, Bangalore, Piuli went to the Marina beach on Sunday morning accompanying her father, mother, grandfather and grandmother. "We were wetting our feet when a wave hit us. My dida (grandma) fell on the sand. I went to help her and grabbed her bag. Others came to help too but the big wave struck then and swept us away."

Piuli was washed away towards the children's play equipment installed on the Marina. After regaining consciousness, she tried grabbing a bar and pulling herself out of water. "I had lost all strength. One uncle then helped me come out of water."

She soon found herself stranded and helpless amid the sea of people who descended on the Marina on hearing about the calamity.

After a long search, she found her mother stranded by the beach. A little manhunt later, they traced her father too. She was then treated at a private hospital at Triplicane.

Piuli was later reunited with the grandfather at the Government General Hospital.

Sunday, however, ended in a sad note for her. Her grandmother, Bela Paul (73), perished to the big wave. The family will leave for Kolkata on Monday.

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