Crime Of God !

I woke up in the morning of 26 December, 2004 hearing the tragic news about the killer waves hitting many coastal areas of the world .I was shocked to hear the news and see, videos of the high altitude and powerful waves storming the shores and gulping poor innocent people and their dreams .Days passed by and it was time for me to be back to my college in Chennai, India .My college was infact the dream place for any college boy..You guys wonder, why? It was none other than Stella Maris College, Chennai, India, the rocking woman's college .When I was back in chennai, it was no more the same place as before .Tsunami, did not forget our chennai shores .The places near Shores were totally devastated and was recovering from the tragedy...This tragedy was a kind of reminder saying that Nothing stays permanent in life .We need to be ready for the call that may happen anytime .We never know what’s next for us in our book of life...It helped for a process of re-thinking about our own life...
A few days after the tragedy, there was an announcement in college about a voluntary association, MSF who were into relief programs of tsunami and were in need of volunteers for a three week program .Based on that, students will be send as a batch assigned on weekly basis .I was interested and got my schedule for the second batch...We started off to Nagercoil with a few of our teachers .We had a few hours of sessions on what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to carry on .We were split into a few groups and each group were assigned to a particular area .I was assigned to Colachal ,Tamil Nadu, India which was infact one of the most deadly affected areas .I started our assigned task .We were into identifying emotionally traumatized individuals and give them counselling to bring them back to a new life . And people who needed specialized assistance were noted and referred for further treatments. I remember those days so fresh in my mind , and those incidents have changed me a lot from what I was, to develop a better me .It infact did give me guidance in times of trials .

During my visit with many people who were deeply affected I learned how lucky we are in this world blessed with lot of things and still we complain .Though they were not rich I learned how rich they were at heart .Though nature was cruel to them snatching away, whatever little they had .They did not have big furnished homes with all luxury .What they had was a small home hardly with basic necessities of life. But after Tsunami, now they are left with nothing else, other than the clothes that they wore at the time .I talked with a few young fishermen who were caught in the waves but saved their life somehow. They had nothing left with them .I started talking to them .What I expected to hear was either depression filled words or curse to God for being so cruel to them .But I was surprised and put to shame by their response .They were smiling with confidence and said " Sister, If we get a boat, we will definitely work hard and get all the lost things back." They were not educated like us, but their words were wiser than us .I imagined for a moment about me of how I would respond if such an incident had happened to me .I remembered with regret the times, I cursed God for less marks in exams rather than thinking I will get better marks studying hard next time .I remembered how hard it was for me to digest when I have lost a gold chain or something valuable .I would never be able to respond in the same way if I woke up in the morning to find I am having nothing else in the world to move on .This incident made me realise, how grateful I need to be always.

I came across a mother who had lost one of her kid out of her two young children of 2 and 5 yrs.She described the incident like this. She heard people screaming and running for life as they saw huge Tsunami waves heading towards the shore with the desire of swallowing all people to subside its hunger.She had two kids in her hands and she ran towards a tree to get hold of it. But she had her two hands occupied. She will have to leave one to its destiny .Imagine a mother’s pain on facing a situation like this to make a choice in her own kid’s .I believe no mother can do that .She did not have hours to make a decision. All she had was a few seconds of time to make a choice between life and death .She decided to leave her five year old as she thought that there may be a chance that he will be able struggle for his own life, survive from the disaster .After a short prayer, she left her older son’s hands free and hold tightly on the tree with her younger kid .They survived the waves but not her hope for the older kid Older son did not survive. Now that mother has no other way, than to curse herself for leaving her own love to the destiny .She could not do anything for his life .She will have to live with this regret for her entire life .She was not the only one, who had the same feeling .There were many who felt helpless in their struggle for their own life .They had to witness their own family, friends or relatives drowning in front of their own eyes. They had to watch them helplessly .Perhaps in their struggle for life they might had to push others away. Perhaps there would have been many who held out hands for a help .But they could do nothing to save their life and had the destiny to be mere watchers of the play.They can hardly forget their drowning faces for their entire life.



There was a time I was completely speechless, not able to do what I was supposed to do .I met a young boy around fifteen years of age .He was staring at all and stood without any emotions and speechless .It was that time, someone told me that he has lost all his family members. He lost all of the 8 relatives including his own parents and sibling .I should admit I had no courage to speak to him. What can I ever tell to console his irreplaceable loss? “Everything happens for good” .That would be really ridiculous to say that to him, Right? But his staring face remains untouched in my heart even now. Mean while I was happy to meet a boy who was mentally disabled, but miraculously saved himself from killer waves. As the waves hit, he somehow managed to climb up a shelf space near to roof in his house .


I met a family, who had lost their daughter whose marriage being fixed a few days later. She was very excited about that the days before this tragic incident .When Tsunami waves strike, all others in her family was able to survive some way .But she did not wake up to see the world once again after that.Tragically,She was caught by the killer waves being struck in her stair case .What a destiny, right ?I felt sad seeing all around me pale tired and nothing in their hands other than a mountain of sorrows and heartbreaking memories .During our visits ,I heard about some inhuman incidents that happened . After tsunami hit there were hundreds of corpse around .It was a shock to hear that there were some people; heartless human beings, robbing jeweleries and other expensive goods from the Corpses.
There were yet another clever and cruel people who gave false alarm about tsunami after the real tsunami hit. People who got scared started running away and that was a good time for them to rob whatever they want from small shelters .In such an false alarm, it was reported that a woman who was eight months pregnant lost her kid as she ran and fall, hearing the false alarm about Tsunami .There were yet another people who went in queue for obtaining benefits of other people, who has not yet recovered from their loss.

One day, was assigned for us to visit nearby schools and to find kids who had not yet recovered from Psychological trauma .We conducted plays and fun classes. During the sessions we watched for kids who did not respond to the activities .We took them individually and talked to them. Some of them had lost their parents, brothers or sisters. We gave them required counseling and we were happy that we could bring some good changes in someone’s life.


I visited a cemetery in colachal, where it happened to have buried more than 300 corpses as they had no way of creating so many individual resting places as the corpses have already reached the state of decomposition . Hence it was necessary that they should dispose the corpses as soon as possible to avoid spreading diseases. I had watched in Television how they had to simply throw away the corpses into the deep grave. It gave me a simple thought about human life .We are only of any good cause till our last breath. After it starts to decompose, even close family may not be able to show their love and respect for that person. That’s what happened here too. When it started decomposing they had no other way than to throw away the corpse, irrespective of who that person was to anyone. Hence, some people were not even able to have a last look at their dear ones whom they loved the most in their lives. Infact some of the corpse were never found at all. May be they were deposited in some other shores .I have heard people saying that “when a person dies he never takes any of his wealth just a 6 feet land will be enough for him to rest”. But the victims of Tsunami hardly had 6 ft land. Infact they all rested together, but definitely not in peace.

After this experience I remember to thank God for each day of my life and remind myself how gifted I and my family is. My prayers and hope is that never again, such a tragedy be enacted in this world.