Not everything is Right about India but we have Some Positive Civilisational Values

We have had some worst times last couple of years in our country. Lives have been lost, properties damaged and families disintegrated. Natural calamity and destruction is not only for India. The force of nature doesn't see if it is a developed country or developing, western union or Saarc. It just plays havoc. When nature's fury is common to all of us in this world what is different? What is special when it comes to India?

Aftermath of Tsunami we have seen so many people rushing to help far and wide of India and yeah some great souls far away from even India. The response of people who live kilometers away from the shore to reach out and help has been tremendous.

When I traveled to Nagapattanam among our group of 14 people only two people were working. The other 12 were students. There were 4 students from Erode. They had come to Chennai after hearing about the vast destruction. They traveled all the way to join the efforts to help the needy and those affected by the monster wave.

Even as we reached Nagappatanam we saw a lot groups which had turned out with food clothes and medicines. We saw heaps of cloths on the sides of the roads. So many of them in their zeal to help had brought too many of those cloths.

This is in sharp contrast with what happened in some other part of the world which claims to be on top of the modern civilisation. There were riots in place of relief. The government which rules the world responded so late to its own citizens.
true reasons why these things happened won`t be known!!! Racism?? Lack of proper Administration system??
In India we had come to know about Tsunami only after it struck but they had the news of the disaster even couple of days before it hit the place.

Words of our president-"Perhaps not everything is right with India, but it has some positive civilisational values. I think this is one of them — our ability to come to the help of those afflicted."

Yes Focus needs to be on what is being done for those affected by Tsunami and the earthquake in Jammu Kashmir. But also shouldn't we talk of the way our people have come forward to help each other. Not only did we stop with helping our own people but we offered help to Srilanka and Indonesia after tsunami . We opened five points on our borders to Pakisthan for help after the earthquake
Critics may associate other reasons for doing so. Whatever be the reasons hinted I can see there is help rendered in some form.

Like what the President had said we should be looking at these CIVILISATIONAL VALUES and should be strengthening them.

Last year this day- Satyam to Suyam

It was 26 December 2004. A day after Christmas. I thought Suresh should be around and I called him. We both then planned for a movie. I was about to pick him at 9.We had planned for a movie at 11 at Satyam.

Surprisingly that day I had got up at 7 which was early by my standards any day. Went to my neighboring unlce`s house to read the newspaper. Sabha my cousin asked me if I experienced a tremor at 6:30- 6 45. He said it was a earthquake and he felt a slight tremor. I have been called Kumbakarna at times for my amma found it so difficult to wake me up. I had not felt the tremor.

I picked up Suresh and reached Satyam. We just read from a tea shop that 15 people were killed near the beach as water entered land. We could make no sense of the news and went on to see the movie.
Both saw the film and were having our food at a hotel. Then we heard that around 200 people were dead in Chennai marina. Suresh asked me if we should go to marina to see the place flooded with water. But I felt if the news was true there would be utter chaos at the site. So we just turned back home.


Amma had the TV on as I entered home. There was some Cricket match that day but all of us were glued to BBC, NDTV, Headlines today in turns.

Not a moment lost in telling the world a calamity had stuck. I never realized that the slight tremor that I did`nt even realize in my sleep had taken toll to this extent. The death toll all around the world as I reached home was 15000 from 200 in Chennai. I followed the story till 3 next morning. Felt so restless and just decided I might try to volunteer for the relief effort.

Next day I left for Nagapattanam with Suyam.

One year since then. I had a test today. I had the urge to write a blog this morning. Just postponed it to the evening. I had gone to the library like I have been doing before every exam. I read a couple of articles on Tsunami.

There is this one about a girl in Akkaraipettai. She believes and keeps telling people that tsunami shall strike again. When people make her understand that there were scientific reasons to disprove her she just says "Where was the science when Tsunami had struck last time". Just shows mans inability when nature strikes.

Another article says" the next tsunami of this magnitude or even worse shall hit North West American coast. It shall hit the coast within 15 minutes of warning. Last years Tsunami took more than an hour to reach Indian coast and still we were helpless. It hit Andaman within 8 minutes of the earthquake. We had time but no information then. If only we knew that a giant wave was coming towards our coast(at Taminadu) thousands of lives would have been saved and hundreds of families would have celebrated christmas this year as they did last year. Bloody Information ..

How much can man do to avoid calamity?

This picture was taken by Arko Dutta. This picture won some international award among 65000 entries. He had taken the picture for Reuters. The subject of the award winning photo is Indira.

"My Anni (sister-in-law) Maheswari was my only moral support till those cruel waves killed her," Indira says.

It is Maheswari's hand that you see in the photo.
Indira and Maheswari had gone to the beach to buy fish for lunch.

"I saw the waves, ran to a coconut tree and clung on to it. I shouted 'Anni, Anni' till I almost drowned. I was almost naked when some people rescued me. But there was no sign of my Anni. The sari you see in the photo was given by some villagers."
Two days later (on December 28), neighbours told me that Anni's body had been found on the seashore. When I saw her body, bloated beyond recognition, I could only beat my chest and wail," she says.

After having exhausted the relief, Indira was forced to pawn her ornaments.

The collector at Nagapattanam is a wonderful administrator and nice human being. His effort has been so publicly known. There are organisations like Suyam that are trying to help people in their own way. And there are gritty survivors like Indira, Anand, Bhaskar, Arulmani and many more.. They just don`t give up.

some pictures...

At akkraipettai KOVIL"the temple". Food was served to the people affected for more than a month as they had no home, no utensils and no livelihood. They helped themselves by involving in the relief work. Nagapattanam people and the local administration were praised for their quick recovery. But still needs to be done.
















The boat you see is a broken boat. You see just the front portion and there is no tail which isn`t visible. This boat I was told costs Rs 25 lakh.












In the first picture is Bhaskar. The second picture me and Anand with the school Headmaster at Akkraipettai.


















Hope the smile finds more faces. This one photo gave this kid a smile on his face.

Let the smile last longer.

my earlier experience with people in Nagapattanam

AKKARAIPETTAI was the word I first heard from NDTV on a news report by Barkha Dutt on 26th Dec. After which this place was flashed on numerous dailies and talked over on various channels but I wondered why this place didn't see a private entity to help build their temporary shelters. May be this was because this place has close to 2000 families and on an average each family has 5-8 members. Government was building temprorary shelter but people said it was far from their village and it would be difficult for their rehabilitation in their village. They needed more and what was been done was a very little percentage of what could have been done.

This place Akkaraipettai had once 1800 boats or more. On an average a boat costs somewhere in between 15 to 25 lacks. Why talk of the boats alone, each of the boats had nets at least a couple or more (the nets costs from Rs.50000 to Rs.150000). This is supposedly the largest fishing hamlet in Tamilnadu. If each boat employs on an average 8 people (5 fisherman + people who sell these fish in the markets, other dependant) we are talking about close to 80000 people (8*6*1800 =people employed*average members in a family*number of boats) dependant on fishing in this village alone. It was said that only 3 of the 1800 boats were in a usable state after the Tsunami had hit.


The picture that you see are palm tree saplings planted in rememberance of the 400 odd children who died in the village of Keechankuppam. You can see the name board on each sapling indicating the name of the child.

There are people who are trying to reach out to these affected people. Help in kind, monetary funds and in person is reaching Suyam from far and wide of India and the world. But to these people who have lost everything as one of them says they have been pushed 50 years behind, what has reached them is very little.

A Fisherman’s life I realized was in general a tough one. We(volunteers and the local fishermen) would have a chat in between work or during our meal about how they would venture into the sea and talk of different things from their love life to their little fans club for various cine artists. The local volunteers working with us are of average age of 25.

On my first visit I would wonder how big all these fishermen families were!! A 7-9 member family is something that is common. As I talked I realized they could never be sure of the bread earner when he ventured into the sea. There were many such cases I personally encountered where the children would take up the fishing job when his father was dead or unable to go to the sea. I can remember this one case of Arulmani. He used to study well, top his class till fifth standard. He was even part of the Arivoli Iyakkam (A movement in Tamilnadu to spread the importance of education in rural places). As his father fell ill he and his brother had to discontinue their study to take up fishing. Now he is just 8th standard pass out and his brother has studied till 9th.

This is Bhaskar standing on the ruins of his house. There are other stories of brave young people who have survived and saved other lives. Bhaskar was one such guy who survived the Tsunami clinging to a palm tree. It was about 9 O’clock in the morning when he was talking to his friend that Tsuanmi had hit his village. He saw big boats being thrown into the wind.He would say it was like some thousand trucks rushing towards him. He saw few small kids who were playing cricket struggling to run. He just managed to catch two of the kids that the waves hit him. The two of the children clung to him and he said the waves were like a big roller taking everything on its way. He would then say that because of those two kids he survived as both of them caught him on front and dorsal side and took the hit when they rolled over with the wave. Bhaskar just managed to catch a palm tree that he found that he already lost one of the kids. As Bhaskar felt the body weight of the other kid clinging on to him from behind he tried to reach him and get him on the tree. By then the kid fell down and his body was taken by the wave that was retreating. As the waved retreated Bhaskar says he was almost over the half the palm trees height. After this frightening incident he still managed to save another guy who was badly injured.

The girl you see in the picture is JEEVIKA.

Among the tragic stories we also heared a couple of miracles. During a visit to the Tanjore Government Hospital we came across girl child "Jeevika". She is going to kindergarten school now. She was almost one girl who was making the entire ward of tsunami hit patients laugh and enjoy with her songs and dance. While she was singing and dancing for our camera little did we know that she was with her father playing on the beach sand when the Tsunami had hit. Her father was on a near-by bed taking treatment for his badly injured leg and stomach. He narrated how after the Tsunami wave he rescued his child lying on a thorn bush in an unconscious state. She was taken to Nagapattanam Government Hospital and the doctors warned that she would die soon. Jeevika giving her parents a torrid time worse than the tsunami lay unconscious for 5 days. Then her condition improved. Now she is hale and healthy. She is the only happiness to the parents who have lost everything. They still thank god for giving them back their JEEVIKA. I now think isn’t the name well suited to the child-"a child full of life"-jeevika

The world has been blessed with amazing people as well

The last blog I had written started with my complaints about people not appreciating my deep thoughts which is`nt correct always.

I would have not started to blog had there been no one to read and apprectiate. I think I was way too critical about people who asked me to be more cheerful.

My experience with blogging started after I started to work for SUYAM. I had read a lot of blogs before but never thought I would start writing one. After I was there in Nagapattanam after the Tsunami the experience left in me disturbing pictures of the tragedy. The number of days I spent with those fishermen I realised how tough their life was. And to add to their misery this tragedy happenned. I had to pour out what I felt and blog was one place I could put forth what I thought. So I wrote about those 10 days in my life and how from ordinary people they became heroes in their own right.

I can’t stop mentioning here a sarcastic comment from a fisherman folk who himself had his property damaged. He said, “ If the Tsunami had to hit another couple of times there would be little or no parity between the rich and poor along the coastline”

once I expressed my heart out and asked my freinds to read I had atleast a dozen of serious people who wanted to help. There are people everywhere who wanted to contribute and it is just that they needed an oppurtunity.
Rose foundation from belgium, came to help SUYAM to recontruct a school in akkraipettai through one of my freind from college.
There is another german company which came in with its ship container full of relief material.

We have people all aroung and the situation is`nt that bleak as I had complained in the first paragraph of the last blog.

Even for the last post there is this person though not agreeing with me said that the blog disturbed the persons sleep that night. If I have made people think with my writing I am getting somewhere.

I think therefore I am

There has been lot of issues that has bugged me. I always have had thought whether things that go around me are right or wrong. I have not been comfortable with a lot of things that happens around me. Very few friends of mine have been able to appreciate when I have some serious thoughts.

“Why do you always write something that is serious, why don’t write something humorous?”
“ Romba think pannadha, freeya vidu!!”
“Its just one life, take things easily……you need not reflect so much on things happening around you!!”

Can’t just blame people around me. After a point I myself thought I shouldn’t be contemplating too much. Then I meet a couple of people who also think like me. Encouraging ….then I get to read something that is disturbing. …the Manju Nathan’s case (Machaans)

I can really understand when his friends express so much of anguish and grief over his death. Have you ever felt proud shedding tears? I did. I was reading this one article by Meera Seth. It really moves me because I am able to put in her position when she talks of Machaan.

I was seeing a clipping on NDTV a year ago, a man getting hit by an electric train in Mumbai railway station. He falls down on the platform in a pool of blood. What does the crowd do? Avoid the man who had fallen down and just carry on with their work. So much of public apathy in our hearts!! How and when did we get to inculcate such an attitude of indifference towards fellow humans?
Shouldn’t we take time to reflect where we have gone wrong?

You’ll see a lot of my writing here similar to the article in business world by Meera Seth.

In every one of us there is a killer. The difference between us and the killer of Manju is that one has killed other hasn’t. I remember reading a quote yesterday “I trust everyone of you but for the devil inside you”.

Those questions that I have mentioned above are similar in a way to these phrases “life must go on” “Time is the best healer”.

The point is that may be time will heal the absence of Manju Nathan but not our callousness, our insensitivity. When we ask the question of why should we remember and reflect on something serious aren’t we living in a denial? We want all these things to get over soon and be in our own comfort zone.

I am happy being the serious guy. I can’t definitely do what Manju Nathan did. Nor do I have the guts to stand up against the system. But I think I can get sensitive to things and make at least a couple of people around me sensitive to things. When there are reports such as this in the media about crime, wars, earthquake or tsunami I shall definitely not be someone who just thinks “Yeh sab hota rehta hai”.


I was reading an article where the writer was differentiating the Indian attitude and the American attitude. This was an article after September 11 attack. As I read the article even I was as proud as the writer. He wrote that unlike the Americans who were making so many hue and cries we Indians after Bombay bomb blast took it in our stride. He went on saying how children in a couple of days were playing cricket near the bomb site.

After reading the article even I was convinced of our approach to life as best. But now I have a different thinking.
The magnitude of media attention that goes when an American soldier is shot in America is way above to what our media gives to soldiers being blown by naxals.

Anbesivam is a one of the favorite movie for many of us. The central idea is if your heart feels for others, shares others pain you have god residing inside you. Wouldn’t it be great if each one of us took responsibilities for the actions we do.



The scene in Tanjore hospitals after deadly tsunami had struck. I believe many of us can feel for this little child who was a victim to this disaster for no fault of hers.



I remember when I was leaving for Chennai after a short stay at Nagapattanam when I was with SUYAM, Bhaskar one of the local fishermen had come to see us off. He handed me a Cadbury chocolate. I could definitely see hope in his eyes. It’s not just money or a cheque of Rs.4000 that these victims of tsunami cherished. It was human concern for their lives that mattered to them. He is expecting things to change through all of us.

Life is valuable whether it is of Manju Nathan or a soldier in the border or a beggar on the street. On each of the cases we need to reflect why a life should be lost because of a crime or a war or of hunger.

I think and I want all of us to think collectively.


I just don`t want to end by just asking questions. Even if I made people think I have been only half successful. We need to do much more than just thinking. I know I am expecting a lot from all of us including myself.



This is Anand. He has a nice smile here on this picture. But things were`nt this smooth a fortnight back.
This brave guy lost his mother in the tsunami disaster. Even before the paramilitary troops that went for handling the situation in nagapattanam after 4 days of the disaster he gathered a group of young men from his village trying to find people and clean the village of the corpses. Once primary relief work was done he did`nt stop with that. He called up SUYAM and said" they were 15 young men from akkraipettai( the most affected village ) and they were ready to do anything for making their village a place to live as it was before."

Shouldn't we learn from the grit shown by this man who has seen the pain through his naked eyes on DEC 26th, felt agony with the loss of his mother but still ready to make a difference for a bigger cause.

ANAND won "seyal veerar" award (a bravery award) from TVS groups for his contribution. We need many more SEYAL VEERARS.