TSUNAMI IMPACT: Hopes of a Family Washed Away by the Killer Waves

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Satya Sivaraman

MUZHUKUTTURAI, India, Mar 4 2005 (IPS) - It is full moon night again and the celestial light is shining on Muzhukutturai, a small fishing hamlet in Cudallore district of coastal Tamil Nadu in southern India.

As the cool sea breeze blows through the rubble around him, 18-year-old Rajiv Gandhi sits, hands clutched to his head, by the small shrine that marks the site where his family once lived.

A flag flutters noiselessly over the little brick structure that now houses a black and white photograph marked with red vermilion, draped by a few dry flowers. They are the only memories left of his 40-year-old mother Laxmi – swept away by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Over 8,000 perished in Tamil Nadu when killer waves on Dec. 26, spawned by a colossal magnitude 9.0 undersea quake in Indonesia’s northern Sumatra, lashed the coastline of a dozen Indian Ocean countries in South and South-east Asia.

Two months ago, on a similar night, Rajiv had finished dinner and slipped out to fish in the backwaters of the Bay of Bengal Sea by his village, the staple source of livelihood for his family and other members of the local fishing community for generations.

He had returned early on the morning just after Christmas with a catch of white tiger prawns, a prized commodity that could fetch up to 250 rupees (six U.S. dollars) per kilogramme in any nearby market any day.

Laxmi had already left the house on her daily rounds of buying fish from the local fishing folk, which she took to the neighboring towns and villages – selling them on retail for a small profit. The money she made was what the entire family survived on.

Rajiv bitterly remembers how on that fateful morning he went searching for his mother – asking her to return home to fetch the prawns he had just caught, so that she could sell them for a handsome sum.

”If she had not returned home she would have been far from the beach when the tsunami struck. I am responsible for her death,” says Rajiv, his face darkening with inconsolable sorrow.

The truth was that Laxmi, who survived the first big wave that struck Muzhukutturai, had asked her husband and children to run away and then went back on her own to the house. The second, and much bigger wave, caught her suddenly and she was swept inland.

Sadly, it was also the day Lady Luck turned her back on Laxmi.

The rescuers finally found her, hair entangled in a thicket of thorn bushes, dead along with four other village women. She was tightly clutching a money purse in her right hand and died trying to retrieve some jewels and cash hidden inside an aluminum box – where the family’s hard-earned life savings were stashed away.

Amma, as Rajiv used to call Laxmi, had named him ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ when he was born – a name quite unusual for a boy from a Tamil fishing community. Obviously Laxmi had hoped that some of the charm, fame and fortune of the former Indian prime minister would also shine upon her first son.

A tough and hardworking woman, Laxmi had left nothing to chance though and struggled to educate all her children at least through primary school. It was not easy at all, especially because her 45-year-old husband Chemban was more of a nuisance than any help to the family – drinking throughout the day, frittering away his wife’s meager income and refusing to share any of the money made from his rare fishing expeditions.

Laxmi’s eldest daughter Regina had married and lived with her husband’s family in Cudallore town. Rajiv had dropped out of school after the fifth standard and used the family catamaran and net to make a living.

Maheswari, his 15-year-old sister also dropped out of school and stayed at home, hoping some day to be married off to a good man.

The exception was eight-year-old Selvam and Laxmi certainly had high hopes for her youngest son. She wanted him to be a government officer when he grew up – and he was certainly doing well in school.

And now she had left Rajiv abruptly, leaving behind a host of heavy responsibilities – Selvam’s education, Maheshwari’s marriage and preventing his father from drinking himself to death. He also had his own future to think about.

”I wanted to go overseas to work, save some money and help my mother,” says Rajiv showing a photocopy of the new passport he had received just a month before the tsunami swept it away – along with every other family belonging.

In the village, many young men like Rajiv had migrated abroad to work in construction sites in Malaysia, Singapore or Dubai. They often came back with tales of fabulous opportunities.

Now, given his family’s grim situation, there was no question of going anywhere for Rajiv who, in his own words, has decided to ”dissolve all his ambitions and swallow them” for the sake of his siblings.

The Tamil Nadu state government had already paid 100,000 rupees (2,400 U.S. dollars), as compensation for Laxmi’s death. While the central government in New Delhi had announced payment of a similar sum, it has yet to arrive.

A non-governmental organisation (NGO) from New Delhi had also come and built temporary shelters for the entire village and there was talk of the state government giving them permanent houses soon.

But all these cannot change the fact that Rajiv would have to pay off the family’s loans. Laxmi had recently borrowed cash for her business to buy a new fishing boat and nets.

The tsunami had damaged the boat and swept away the nets. Now the loan sharks, who were charging interest of up to 25 percent a month have threatened to use force if the family did not pay up soon.

Part of the compensation money had of course been used to pay off some of the loans but then again there was money required for Maheswari’s dowry- a princely sum of 200,000 rupees (4,800 U.S. dollars) asked by a prospective bridegroom from Cudallore.

As if all these worries were not enough, all of a sudden Chemban had started acting funny and become extremely reluctant to give the family any of the compensation money he had received for Laxmi’s death.

Rajiv believes that his father is trying get married again to another lady and abandon his own children.

”All these burdens should have been shouldered by my father but he says he does not want to have anything to do with them,” Rajiv tells IPS with no resentment but only resignation.

As the night air gets a bit chilly, he takes a last look at his mother’s face before heading back home to rest.