The Tsunami (Stories from real life)
Courtesy: The Hindu's Young World
NIMI KURIAN
But
deep inside, they also know that one day it may turn against them again.
Until then...
|
"Why would it
want to hurt us again?"
A quiet fishing village — Kokillamedu, near Chennai,
on the southern coast of India. The houses that stood on the shorefront have
given way to grass and plants. A little distance away, the sea is a light blue
and the waves play gently on the beach. The sea seems to stretch to eternity,
going far beyond the horizon. It seems friendly and almost welcoming. But a
year ago, the sea changed its character. For one horrible day it swept inland,
taking with it anything and anyone it could find. It was a tsunami and the
people were shocked, they did not know what was happening. Even the oldest
resident of that village said that he had never seen something like this
before.
A year ago
Kesavamurthy, a
student of Std. VIII, says he was playing by the sea that Sunday when suddenly
he noticed the strange behaviour of the waves. "They rose up high. Almost
as high as that coconut tree," he says pointing. "I ran home, because
I knew my sister was alone there. She is only four." Together they ran —
away from their home and their friend, the sea.
"I was helping
my mother with the cooking ," says Valli, Std. VII. "I heard shouting
and running and then I saw what was happening. Yes, I was very
frightened." One year later, the memories of that day linger on.
"Luckily for us, there was no loss of life here. But we lost all our
things. They were just washed away," says Balasubramaniam, Std. VII.
Looking back, the
children are stoic, they remember the tsunami as one of nature's vagaries.
"The sea is there. It won't do that again," says Arunachalam, Std. IV
confidently. "But sometimes when the wind howls through the trees it is a
bit frightening," says Pandian.
"I don't see any
reason for fear. We have lived here for so long and the sea was always close
by. Why would it want to hurt us again?" says Manjumadha, Std. VI.
Life goes on much as
usual. The village elders ensure that everyone gets their share of the aid that
comes in. Boats go out to sea early morning, bringing back hordes of fish. The
women take the fish to the market to sell. While the men sleep off their
tiredness, the children are at school.
Vijay, Std. VI, is
philosophical in his outlook. "The sea will not harm us," he says.
Though he is not able to state reasons for this confidence.
Since that fateful
day, the children have been reading, studying and watching the television for
news about tsunamis. Having watched it close up they wanted to know more.
"In Japan, tsunamis are a common feature," they say. "They have
learnt to live with them."
The children go to
school, play cricket on the shore, play in the sea, lie down on the beach all
the while knowing that their friend the sea may one day turn against them
again. But for them, their home is by the seashore and the sea will always be
their friend.
December 26, 2004
On December 26, 2004,
the Indian coastline experienced the most devastating tsunami in recorded
history. According to the National Institute of Oceanography, the tsunami was
triggered by an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale at 3.4� N, 95.7� E off the coast of
Sumatra in the Indonesian Archepelago at 06:29 hrs IST (00:59 hrs GMT). The
earthquake epicentre is located relatively at shallow depth, about 10 km below
the ocean floor. The high magnitude, 9.0 Richter scale, of the earthquake and
its shallow epicentre may have triggered the tsunami in the northeast Indian
Ocean. These travelled in open ocean of the Bay of Bengal and subsequently
transformed into a train of catastrophic oscillations on the sea surface close
to coastal zones of Sri Lanka and east coast of India.
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