Tsunami & After

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Crocodile saves man from killer tsunami

     London: A Sri Lankan pensioner, Upali Gunasekera, has revealed that he was saved from the killer tsunami waves by a crocodile. Gunasekera said that the crocodile was one, which regularly visited the garden of his house in Matara, Sri Lanka. He was taking a stroll in the garden overlooking a river and the sea, when the tsunami struck washing him away in the high tidal waves. According to Ananova, Gunasekera clutched a floating stool with one hand and a chair with the other, and managed to stay afloat until a wave knocked them from his grip. That was when he saw what he thought was a log moving towards him and clung on to it, but soon realized that he was holding on to the crocodile. Gunasekera had begun to give up the hope of surviving the disaster, but felt the 'friendly crocodile' nudge his belly and push him to the safety of the river bank.
- Jan 12, 2005

Tourists start returning to tsunami hit Pondicherry (Go To Top)

     Pondicherry: A large number of tourists have started arriving in Pondicherry almost a fortnight after the tsunami hit the country's coastline. Guests from across the globe unhindered by the tsunamis are arriving in hordes to the tourist hotspot. The Union territory lost more than 400 lives in the tsunami disaster on December 26. There was a decline in the tourist graph as people preferred to visit other safer destinations, but now the tourists are gradually returning. "It's absolutely fantastic here. I am just looking at the beach over there and you can never know that tsunami had hit here it's just beautiful. Everybody is really safe, everybody is really friendly and they are just carrying on with their lives and that is what you have got to do. There is no problem at all. They are really getting on with their lives," said Catherine, a tourist from France. Tourists from mainly eastern states have started venturing into Pondicherry. "On that evil day the sea devoured all the people, fishermen were scared to venture into the sea, but now the sea is normal," said Chandramohan, a local tourist.

      Local residents say they want to leave the natural disaster behind them as a bad dream to pick up the threads of their lives once again. The tsunami, triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake off Sumatra on December 26, has killed close to 156,060 lives across south and Southeast Asia. At least 15,636 people are dead or feared dead in India, more than 7400 in Tamil Nadu alone.
- Jan 8, 2005

Anxiety, tears for old Indian couple awaiting news of missing children (Go To Top)

     Baripada(Orissa): Tears in eyes, wrinkled foreheads and hands folded in prayers, - an ageing Indian couple is anxiously awaiting news of their two children, a son and a daughter, who have been missing in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands since December 26, the fateful morning when huge tsunamis devastated millions of lives across south and southeast Asia. For Duryodhan and Sarojini Bairiranjan, of Baripada village in eastern Orissa, their last telephone conversation with their children on December 25, is all they have left to hold on to as days pass by into weeks and repeated survivor list omit the two names their eyes have been so anxiously waiting to see. Their two sons, daughter and her husband were in the Car Nicobar, one of the worst hit in the island chain, when the tragedy struck. While their elder son and son-in-law managed to hold on to a concrete structure, the other two, more fragile and unable to swim, were washed away.

     The family has since then been running from pillar to post seeking any news about them but little has come forth and fears are high that both could be dead. Even as the entire village joins the Bariranjans in their grief, offering them whatever help they can, the couple has refused to believe the eventual. Duryodhan Bariranjan, who has taken ill because of the tension, struggled to hold back tears as he repeated the last words of his daughter - "Papa I will be home soon". Clinging on to faith, the retired government employee says he is sure his children will keep the promise they made. "I have faith that they are alive. Maybe they are in trouble and struggling but they are alive, it is my belief in God. He will not let us down by taking away my children, they will definitely come back," he said.
- Jan 8, 2005

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