A sister wakes up on New Year’s Day to find brother alive in this Express frame

When she called this newspaper’s office here today, it was as if she didn’t know whether to laugh out loud in relief or just talk. ‘‘Thank you, thank you,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s God’s grace. We had no news about him till we saw his photo in your newspaper, alive and well. I had been crying for so long,’’ said Chitra, 42. Her brother is six years elder to her.

That picture, taken by The Indian Express photographer Vikas Khot, showed her elder brother Uginraj (not Unni, as was reported yesterday) Sundaram at 18 Point, on Campbell Bay in the Andamans, just 110 km from the epicentre.

‘‘The moment we saw my brother-in-law’s photo in your paper, I called his family in Erode (Tamil Nadu)—his wife and two daughters are in their late teens—and gave them the good news. We had no information, nothing to go on except hope. They were so relieved,’’ said Chitra’s husband, C S K Andrews. ‘‘My father was in the services, under a government scheme for ex-servicemen, in 1974, 100 families, including Tamilians, Keralites and Maharashtrians among others, came to Campbell Bay to settle down.’’

Living in the islands along with Sundaram were her mother, father, brother, elder sister who works as a nurse, and another brother who’s a cook. ‘‘Some news came in last night (about my brother) from the Coast Guard via a phone call, but we didn’t know how credible it was. The photo put the issue beyond doubt,’’ said Chitra.

Her husband couldn’t get over the fact that Sundaram was actually standing in the photo. ‘‘He had hurt his leg sometime ago. I don’t know how he’s standing, but it’s wonderful all the same,’’ he said, adding that as a Central Government employee, he had been posted twice to Campbell Bay for two three-year stints in the ’70s and ’80s.