After Tsunami

When the Tsunami struck Japan I was reminded of the earlier one which hit south India end- 2004. Very few including me had heard of the word Tsunami before ...

After 10 years in Chennai we'd just shifted to our new home near the beach and less than a month later, in the early morning of 26th Dec, felt a slight tremor while we were still asleep: as we'd had a late night .. bringing in AS's birthday. Around 6am the glass of water at IS's bedside shook, but we thought nothing more of it and dosed off again. Later around 8am I heard people outside scream in Tamil 'the Sea is coming! the Sea is coming!' in a panic tone and knew something was wrong. My first thought was the girls who were sleeping in their first floor bedroom. Ran up to check on them and went out on the terrace from where one could see the sea. The water had come into the lower-lying lane next to ours, with it bringing in some fishermen's boats! There was panic all around ... surely something was wrong.

IS went out of the gate to check and walked a 100 meters towards the beach, then came back running when he saw a big gush of water coming down our road ... the 2nd wave.

A few phone calls to some friends, my aunt who was in her beach-house close-by for the weekend said they were going back to their home in the city and we should also pack and leave. We could not get ourselves to leave as this was our home and we had no other home to go to. And what about the gardener and his family, where would they go? The two little pups who'd adopted us?

The power supply was cut, phone lines went dead (after the initial panic calls from friends and relatives asking us about our well-being), since we were near the sea. Till that time I assumed it was a tidal wave, till we heard later of the devastation this had caused all along the coast and thousands were homeless and how bodies had been washed away. In the coastal flat-lands nearer Pondicherry (used for salt-ponds, shrimp ponds), the water carried in for miles, whole fishing villages getting wiped out.

It was frightening to see disaster so closely and at the same time we were thankful that we were safe. Next day, a walk to the beach showed us a scary picture of the fury of the Sea. Compound walls washed away, cars washed away, the beach sand blackened. With the salt water coming in so far inland, the ground water aquifers got affected everywhere, and even in our belt which was blessed with drinkable ground-water, got salty for some months.

Another time I actually cried when a cyclone brought down the newly-built shed IS had put up for his seafood business. We had recently moved to Chennai and were still getting used to the city, but now the whole city was a mess, with up-rooted trees, fallen billboards ... very strange and upsetting. At that time also we went without power and phones for nearly ten days.

This kind of devastation by nature could happen anytime, any place ... not just near the sea, even people living inland are not spared from floods, drought, cyclones, earthquakes, forest fires, etc.

So we got a slight taste of similar situations up-close, but now the horrific news of the Tsunami in Japan where the term was coined that has killed thousands and taken away homes from those who survived. Japan has endured atom bomb explosions and is now trying to avoid a radioactive disaster due to the damaged nuclear reactors. Seeing visuals on TV, I feel some of their pain and can only respond with my prayers.

I don't think these catastrophic events are signs that our world is coming to an end, at least not yet, but I do believe these are signals to awaken us to take more care of our planet earth, otherwise we'll speed up that process!

I can only be thankful to God, who is the Creator and the Destroyer, for every single day we are alive and safe.


It still remains
'The land of the rising sun'
of cherry blossoms.
The earth moved
sending waves.
The sea
regurgitating
the debris.
Water engulfed
making lives
homeless,
and missing.
I feel sad
as I see visuals
of dry tears
on faces of devastation.
A disciplined, resilient people
helpless
as nature cursed.
Fighting radiation
a boon
now a bane.
Preserve nature
but in vain.

A silent prayer for all affected by the Tsunami.