Tsunami - Gone with the waves.....

A morning clear and bright,

after the Christmas night

The sea echoed its call,

to unexpected waves, ever so tall.

Giant waves as people called it be

unlike the usual high tide that stood upto the knee.

They came whirling, swirling and churning,

and within moment everything went sweeping.

One after the other it hit the shore,

like the angry sea Goddess cried her roar.

Those sands that reflected happiness,

were hit by her evil waves of callous

Soon, everything was gone,

leaving the site bygone

Tsunami, was what they called this disaster,

 a nightmare, that'll remain forever.

- sulaiman Sait 

        

It was the morning of 26th December 2004; Sunday, and had been a couple of days since school had dismissed for Christmas; and well before the holidays started I had decided to spend my holidays at my uncle's place in Royapuram. On the morning of 26th, I was along with my uncle as he took me along with him to get some fish from the sea shore market of Kasimeedu before we could return back home for breakfast. 

     The day seemed normal, as we left from there, until we reached the sea shore market of Kasimeedu (Royapuram), where we saw a devastating sight of people running around. Initially there were high tides which were striking against the big rocks of the port were anchored their boats, but within no time we realized that these were not any normal high tides, but a sign of a disaster, when the waves were hitting the shore harder, the waves were tall and came with a lot of force. On one side I could see huge waves hit the rocks with heights almost double-triple of us. I saw a many small motor boats, rafts being crushed apart. Some of the ships which were anchored where tilted towards the shore as people started rushing. I could hear people shouting- "the end of the world is here" ,It was a total chaos there. On one side I could hear fishermen cry for their partners who didn't return back from sea. On the other side there were people who were pushing us all to leave from there. I was shouting out to my uncle,and a couple of people around that this giant wave is called a tsunami, he/nor anyone there were bothered to give a ear amidst the sight of disaster. It was a mad rush we made away from there to return back home empty handed, yet safe. Back home when we got to see the news and live footage of the disaster and when it was called tsunami, did my uncle realize I was not blabbering anything, but was right about it.

     It was a couple of days after the disaster, when we (uncle, aunt, grandmother, mom, dad and me) decided to go back that side (scared though) to find coast guard having sealed that area, we could see fishermen cry as a few unrecognizable bodies were loaded into the ambulance.

     Though Royapuram side didn't have the biggest of the waves that hit Chennai but I feel I'm lucky enough to even be sitting back home and typing this blogpost... I could be been gone 10 years back from today when Tsunami hit Chennai and I was at the shores of Royapuram.

Everything could have gone with the waves, but I was lucky enough to have survived from that devastating sight....

post disaster at the sea shore fish market
(source: Google Images)

--> Sulaiman Sait