Thursday afternoon 30th Dec 2004– 1400 hrs… a small envelope appears at the taskbar on the very right hand corner of my desktop… yep I got a mail. Good old Sameer says… “hey dude, What’s in for the new year?”.
Three days later I looked at that mail and smile. I look back to the three days I spent welcoming 2005.
Day 0 - 1830 hrs Thursday 30th Dec 2004. A bunch of guys are planning to go on a trip to Nagapattinum. A Tsunami had hit the area and hit it real hard. Something that wasn’t expected at the Indian shores…
I decided to go along. Made a few phone calls and at 2200 hrs that day! I was off. I found myself next to Jassi(my Sardaar roomate) trying desperately to adjust and get some sleep on the sleeper bus we boarded.
Day 1 – I wake up around 0700hrs, I find Jassi still trying to adjust in bed :D. I find myself surrounded by a bunch of noble souls who gathered for a common cause. Somehow try and make a difference to the devastated life of the people hit by the giant waves at our country’s Southeastern shore.
We had managed to gather a few things… old clothes, biscuits, medicines and most importantly 35 people. The discussion starts on what’s the plan for the day! After a Looooooooooonggggggggggg discussion we decided that we would stop by at a temple at Tiruvarur and get more details on the affected area. This temple was giving shelter and aid to around 2000 people from various villages. Our activities were set to cleaning up and provide anything they needed from the resources we were carrying. We reached base at around 1300Hrs. A few were sent to locate accommodation for freshening up. A few moved ahead to the collector’s office and the rest started their operation at the temple. It was huge and behind it was a lake. I had to forcibly visit the temple… for the Lara Croft inside Rashmi had just come alive. We found the temple in bad shape, not that the poor people were doing any better to it. A medical camp inside was interacted with to know of the supplies they were short of. A lot of drama was sliding along as we had a lot of over-intelligent under-utilized brains at the scene deciding separate courses for the effort we had initially planned to put together. We decided to approach the nearest village needing aid. Meanwhile a taxi was hired to lead us to the village. Not only did the taxi which was suppose to lead us get left behind, the brave taxi driver in it decided to overtake a police jeep… and thereby he found himself flagged to the local jail.
The evening brought us better luck with the much needed approval letter from the collector for the village visits and a meeting with the local Red Cross and set of doctors.
2200hrs 31st Dec –Most of us settled in the bus. A few including yours truly managed to squeeze in one of the 3 rooms hired to freshen up.
2300Hrs – Last hour of 2004- I started my long walk with my newly found friends from the room to the lake where we were all to meet. Silently we talked and the introduction went on. A cracker cracked in the sky above us at 0000Hrs 2005. The New Year was here.
Day-2: 0530 hrs.. I find myself next to jassi…, he was trying to find some sleep :D. I was at the bus by 0700hrs and we were off to the medical camp at Viluntahmavadi in Nagapattinam dist. It was in a sorry state. Piles of old cloth dumped by the Govt lay unused. One doctor hundreds of people needing assistance… Not enough medicines… and No one to administer the crowd. Some of us immediately took the positions as compounders to the Doc. I joined the cleaning activities. We lured the children and young adults using the biscuits packs to join in, sadly some denied “its not my village”.
A few hrs of cleaning and lunch was served. Good old Bread-jam . God bless MTR who came up with packed food. With the stomach’s call answered, A few of us dressed in surgical gloves and masks played doctor and took a round on feet to nearby village. We let the people know that medical help was available at the camp.
All the villages looked the same. Houses floored, population obliterated. We resumed our operation of cleaning the area, picking up polythene bags, biscuits pack wraps, assembled the clothes that lay everywhere.
As the evening approached we found “Gaada” my architect friend with a lot of children around him. He was taking their snaps. These innocent souls were having fun. A few others and me joined in. We played with them and the whole place was alive with cheers of these kids having fun. We took turns to run while these 100+ kids ran after us to catch us. Gopal started educating them about the importance of the studies and cleanliness.
Maybe just for one day but I am glad we managed to fill their lives with some fun lit moments as we dropped dancing, playing and singing with them. The sun set at their cheers. The locals were overwhelmed and the kids didn’t let go of us!! Sadly we had to leave.
Happy with our day I set back… had my sweet Dosas and crashed into sweet sleep. It was my turn at the floorJ.
Day 3 0600hrs: I found Jassi in the same state, later I realized that’s how Jassi sleeps!!
Kallar village in Velankanni dist was where we were heading today. I started off with medical team, visited a camp. People flocked for aid, children crying and battling trying to avoid the shots. Later a few in my team spent time looking for dead bodies. Amit found one… I don’t think I can describe its state.
We met localities, the ones who knew Tamil explained that there are loudspeakers and alarms and if you hear the siren run away from the shore as far as you can and as fast as your legs can take you. These were the people who used the sand as their toothpaste. Sadly they were now advised to run away from it.
I came across a house where I found good old jassi. It was a sea-facing house. It was full of mud. And the whole floor was covered with wet sand. I spent the afternoon digging inside the house in search of the floor. We managed to recover a gold chain and gold earrings for the poor owner. After a few hours of digging the owner came to us and asked if we could stop. He was tired. He thanked us and rushed to fetch food from the Govt van.
We were to leave that day. Me and jassi walked back only to find our bus missing. It had moved a kilometer back. We had a nice talk while walking discussing whose idea it would have been ;).
At approximately 1700hrs we were on our way back to Bangalore. We found a over surplus of biscuits was still with us. We discussed the issue and stopped on our way near a camp, only to start again with the biscuits still on our bus and unfortunately poor manju left behind. Thankfully he took a lift and caught on with the bus soon J.
Monday morning 0800Hrs… I was back in Bangalore. My New Year had started. I was pleased with what I had made of the three days. Although three days was too little for us to make a huge rescue effort, I am happy we did the best we could. I full heartedly thank the people who made it happen. I had left Bangalore alone with the little effort I would offer and I returned back with a contented heart and bunch of new friends.
I have presented the lighter moments of the trip we had. The upheaval that struck the site I don’t dare try narrate.
May God be kind to Mankind.
