The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Victims relive the tsunami experience

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Victims relive the tsunami experience

Meera Srinivasan

Chennai students back from visit to Japan

COPING WITH DISASTERS: (From left) Jashoda Sundar, English teacher at Sivaswami Kalalaya, with C. Nachiappan, A. Sheela and Aparna Sivaraman. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: When Standard X student Amuda Arumugam recalled the tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004, her face went pale and her voice trembled with fear.

"When everyone said water was coming (`thanni varudhu') we thought the Metrowater lorry had come and we rushed out with our pots. It took us a while to comprehend what was happening," she said.

She, along with three other students — C. Nachiappan, Aparna Sivaraman and A. Sheela — visited Wakayama in Japan this October.

Youth forum

The Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) had invited them to represent the country at the Asian Youth Forum for Disaster Reduction Education.

C. Nachiappan is a Standard XI student of Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya Senior Secondary School, while Amuda, Aparna and Sheela are from Lady Sivaswamy Girls Higher Secondary School.

"Everything inside the house was washed away.

"The neighbourhood was in total chaos," said Nachiappan, who was living in the government quarters at Foreshore Estate then.

The bigger challenge for his family was helping his mother, a physically challenged person, to move out of the place safely.

When Aparna explained how the visual of a woman clinging onto a wall haunted her till date, and Amuda said how her family was displaced to Thoraippakkam forcing her to take two buses to school everyday, the magnitude of the aftermath was evident.

Back from the forum aimed at educating children on disaster management and measures to be adopted post-disaster, the students said that they were deeply moved when they heard similar and in some cases, even scarier episodes from their counterparts.

Interactions

"The students interacted with children from other tsunami-hit countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia," said Jashoda Sundar, English teacher at Sivaswami Kalalaya who accompanied them.

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