The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Memories continue to haunt them

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Memories continue to haunt them

By Ramya Kannan

NAGAPATTINAM, JAN. 25. A month after the tsunami hit and flattened what has come to be known as `Ground Zero' — Keechankuppam in Nagapattinam district — the crowds are back at the boat jetty. Or what used to be a jetty. Now there is a cluster of boats, piled on one another. Standing by the small bridge, the crowds watch with interest earthmovers scooping up a dead body from the debris. They watch as the machine places the young male body gently on the earth and shovel sand over it. The 6,064th tsunami body in Nagapattinam has just been buried.

Nearby a few fishermen are attaching huge ropes to a boat. The other end of the rope is tied to a bulldozer making deep tracks on the hardened, blackened earth. Locals involve themselves, some shoving, some pulling and others cheering.

One of them tells the Collector, J. Radhakrishnan, inspecting rehabilitation work in the area, "You do not have to pay us to retrieve our boats. Just provide us lunch and buy metal ropes."

A few others follow him as he walks rapidly to the beach, where signs of the loss are more obvious. Small makeshift headstones are placed clumsily on the sand in front of what were once houses, in memory of a wife or a daughter, a son or a husband.

Thangababu's eyes fill up with tears as he says, "The sea was our God. If the God has forsaken us, what will we do?"At Kizhamoovarkarai, about 22 km from Sirgazhi, C. Mani has come with neighbour Jayaraman to retrieve bricks from his house. "They are saying that the tsunami will come tomorrow again. If it comes, then even these stones will not remain," he says. He is more courageous than the rest in his village who stay in temporary shelters, not willing to venture into a ghost town. Even Mani's courage lasts only till sundown. "After that I am scared. I cannot remain here." Will he come back to his village again? "Aiyaiyo! How can we?"

Jayaraman, who lost three of his children in the tsunami, says, "Perhaps we will go out again. After the 26th. We are superstitious about that now."

Resting in the shade that the roof of her temporary house throws on the ground, Annapoornam says, "If the tsunami comes again, all those who survived will also die." However, a revenue official who is on relief duty there, chides her. "Why are you being so negative? We are with you. Nothing will happen."

In Cuddalore, the Collector, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, takes a boat ride to allay fears of the tsunami striking again. "Being a full moon day, the sea can be rough, but that does not amount to a tsunami." The district administration has had to launch a public awareness campaign in the affected villages.

Televised statements from the Collector urge people, through local channels, not to be afraid. "We will be with you on the beaches. Do not go away."

Children cheerful

The message seems to have gone home to the children in the Annai Sathya Government orphanage in Kadambadi, close to Nagapattinam town. "Do you believe that the tsunami will come back tomorrow?" someone asks them. "No," they say in chorus. "We are not going to believe it. It is just a rumour."

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