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