Hopes return but nightmare of Dec 26 remains

Can one really get over loss of loved ones & cherished homes? Thousands of families continue struggle to find answer

- ANTONY FERNANDO @Nagapattinam

A covenant between the sea and seafarers was broken on December 26, 2004. Waves invaded Tamil Nadu's shores, leaving wounds no amount of time could heal. Twenty years later, survivors of the disaster in hamlets that dot the coast still relive the nightmare that claimed close to eight thousand lives in Tamil Nadu.

R Sankar (then 28), hailing from Tharangambadi (Mayiladuthurai district), was working from the Pudukkottai harbour when tragedy struck. At a time when mobile phones were uncommon and few had heard of a tsunami, Sankar learnt of the giant waves hitting the shores from a TV alongside others at the harbour. A few of the men quickly hired a Tata Sumo and started for home. The scenes that unfolded during the journey are still vivid in Sankar's memory: the lines of bodies unending, hundreds of houses shattered like sand castles. Before long, they decided to take a circumnavigatory route to avoid this sight.

His worst fear was realised when he finally reached his village. The waves had levelled his thatched house and taken both his daughters—three-year-old Sabarmathi and months-old Sameera. His wife Sekari (then 22) had undergone a tubectomy after Sameera was born. After the tsunami, the couple approached multiple hospitals to get the procedure reversed in the hope of becoming parents again. All their efforts turned futile. Their attempts to adopt a male baby from a few orphanages also went in vain.

"We don't have a child to light our funeral pyre," the now middle-aged couple teared up.

The disaster took not just his children and home but his livelihood in the form of his motorised boat as well. "We later received a boat as a donation. But, it was of substandard quality. I sold it after two years to settle our debts. I spent the