Ebullient Libran

Tsunami

December 26th 2004 has gone into history books as one of the most infamous days for the large scale human tragedy caused by the Tsunami that struck that day. The tsunami that caused havoc across much of world had its impact in the southern part of India too. And I was there in the very tip of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in Kanyakumari, to be precise, to witness first hand the wrath of Mother Nature.

In December of 2004 I was working for TCS, Chennai and since it was a long weekend, I and my then colleague decided to go on a whirlwind tour of southern Tamil Nadu. This was a totally unplanned trip and what a whirlwind trip it turned out to be. Upon reaching Kanyakumari I and my friend decided to head to the famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial, which was on a small island just of the coast - just 10 minutes boat ride away from the mainland. Sharp 10:00AM we were in the queue to board the boat that would carry us to the island. The ocean waters were as calm as it could get and we did not even have the slightest inkling of what was about to come our way.

On reaching the island we had a quick look around the place. We looked at the Meditation hall- where it is said Swami Vivekananda attained his enlightenment, had our snaps taken and bought our souvenirs from the souvenir shop, and went around the hall to have a 360 degree view of the island, which was put smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean. After a good one hour or so we were all set to leave when the word-of-mouth message came in from the boat operators that a low tide was coming our way and hence the boat would not come to pick us up until the high tide returned and to add a slight twist to the tale, one of the operator in fact to went on to say that that was quite normal. So no one bothered. An hour later, however, things started to change.

The low tide transformed into something more phenomenal. Within a matter of few seconds the ocean was devoid of water. The crowd of around 600 people let a huge sigh in astonishment. We all could see the bare earth with the algae and other sea plants lying flat on the ground. It is at this point the operators became clueless and could not give a straight answer as to what was happening. And just then I received a call from my father from Bangalore that an earthquake had struck off the coast of the Indonesia and it was speculated in the news channels that a tsunami was on its way towards India. My father actually wanted to warn me not to go near any beach/coastlines. But when I said that I was already on the rock, he froze asking us to get out of there as soon as possible. All I could say to him was that I and my friend would do so ASAP though I knew that would not be possible until the boat came back for us. Then the mobile signal went dead.

The next second we saw something foamy white in color rushing towards the Thiruvallvar statue which was a good 50-100 meters away from the rock on which we were standing. The foamy white colored wave came crashing into the statue, the rock and then moved towards the mainland. One moment the ocean was empty and the next moment with that huge wave the ocean was replenished to the max. But there was more to come. The waters receded back again in a jiffy only to repeat the foamy white display all over again with a even bigger sized wave. This second wave, we approximated to be around 40-60 feet in height, hit the rock hard splashing water over people who were on the left side of the rock. All the people, except one who was recording every moment of Mother Nature’s fury on his handy cam, in the vicinity came running helter-skelter towards right side of the rock where I and my colleague were standing. The wave then continued on to batter the coastline as hard as it could give. We saw small buildings tumble like a pack of cards and we even thought the distant church would also fall prey to the wave. The wave, after having bounced of the coastline, returned back with debris, which included our long awaited boat, smashed in to smithereens, and another huge boat dragged into the heart of the ocean and with that raising our anxiety levels.

The next thing I heard was my phone ring. I told my father that I was on the rock and was in no position to leave it soon. The call got disconnected and my phone starts buzzing again. It was my brother this time. He informs me that the Air Force was on its way for rescue efforts and the local administration would be soon dropping food packets. Well, well, well, I and my colleague thought, this wasn’t what we had expected and all the fun and exhilarating stuff we were having was gradually turning out into dream gone bad.

Around 12.30 PM we saw a small canoe, with a couple of local fisherman braving the fickle tides, come over to the rock from the mainland with food packets, just as my brother had said. What came next was one of the most disgusting sights I have ever seen. People went wild, jumping and climbing over each other to grab packets of food, though there was plenty of such packets which were provided by church which was being battered by the waves just a few minutes ago. We had hardly been on the rock for 2.5 hours and people acted as though they had gone hungry for more than a year. Food was spilt all over the place. People had sullied the picturesque rock with their filthy behavior and yet they did not hesitate to scoff at the administration for being “late”. This sordid display of human greed lasted a good hour or so and then when the “animals” had exhausted their energies they decided to take a breather. “Animals” dispersed in different directions with a lucky few finding a comfortable place under the shadow of the memorial’s roof. An eerie silence that followed lasted for an endless few hours and was only disturbed by the rotor blades of an IAF rescue copter descending from the distant sky across the mainland.

People, correctly sensing that the copter was there for their rescue decided to throng the area on the rock where they felt the copter would mostly likely land. To everyone’s dismay the chopper pilot did not land and at ‘that’ spot but moved on to land in another place in a different angle. Seeing this few in the crowd went restless – all the while running from here to there. One lady went berserk, crying and yelling at the hapless authorities to rescue her and her child. Sensing that her nervousness will transmit an airborne disease of panic across the rock, I and my friend decided to calm her down. We took her to a corner of the island to soothe her nerves. In this we indeed succeeded and while other people were going helter-skelter about what was going on, the day was coming to a close and it was well past 7:00 PM.

While I and my colleague were seeing this spectacle of people scurrying from one place to another, I got a call from brother who said that the copter pilot, who is a colleague of my brother in the Air Force, had decided to call off permanently the rescue mission because he could not find a suitable spot to perform the rescue maneuvers. It is then that I my colleague decided to take the canoe which was sent by the local administration as an alternative to the copter for the rescue mission and which was overlooked by all the people on the island as a safe way to reach back the mainland. I and my friend and few other men boarded the small canoe and were taken back to the shoreline around 7:30 PM.

What a relief it was to be back on the mainland. And to our astonishment the boatman gave us thumbs up by appreciating me and my friend for having been brave enough to take the canoe instead of waiting for the copter all the while knowing that the tide was fickle. I and my colleague looked at each other, had a chuckle and believed that we were darn lucky to be alive that day.

posted by Akhilesh @ 10:12 PM