Black Sunday comes back in shades of blue

Some of the children—all aged between five and 13—asked them for papers and pencils, things they hadn’t touched for a week. Soon, the demand became a chorus.

The volunteers smilingly handed the material over; they thought the little ones just wanted to have some fun.

But when the papers were returned an hour later, the smiles faded away. All the pictures had only one theme: waves and death.

From coconut trees crashing down, a woman bending and falling, a boat perched on top of a huge wave, people being swept away: the children had simply translated those terrible mental scars into stark images.

‘‘We didn’t expect this. We couldn’t have imagined that they would draw their terror and angst in such great detail. When almost 100 of them handed back almost identical drawings, you couldn’t help thinking of the tragedy that was etched in their minds,’’ says K Mahadevan, a training coordinator of Psyche, an NGO supported by Terre-Des Hommes.

C Sutha, a Class 4 student of Natarajan Damayanti school in Keechankuppam, had drawn a beach with bodies scattered around—a huge wave looms in the background. On one corner is a boat, on top of a house. There’s also a body on the beach encircled in red—probably her father, who went with the waves.

B Divya, a Class 5 student, had drawn a wave that touches the wings of crows flying by. In the foreground is a boat that has turned turtle. Then, there’s her address in a corner: Velipalayam, North Street, Akkar-aipettai. She knows that address does not exist now.

E Punithavathi had drawn houses and boats on a beach and crooked lines all over them, as if the waves had cancelled them all out.

According to volunteers, all these children hail from Akkaraipettai, Aryanatuthere and Keechankuppam, villages near here that have been totally destroyed—10 have been orphaned.

‘‘Being Sunday, some of these kids were playing cricket when they saw the waves come. They survived, but saw what the water did,’’ says Mahadevan.

‘‘There are about 140 children in this camp, where 250 families are taking shelter,”says Jaya Pradha, another volunteer.

The drawings done, it was back to doing things that all children do. Within minutes, the temple complex was filled with joyous shouts and shrieks. About 50 little ones started running around in one huge circle, laughing and whooping. ‘‘Marathilu ethina mangai irikkirathu? (How many mangoes are there on the tree?)’’ a volunteer shouted. ‘‘Five,’’ the children shouted back. Immediately, they started forming groups of five, the one left out was heartily booed.

Soon, several parents, tears filling their eyes, joined the fun and began to clap and cheer. They were not thinking of the week past and the years ahead. It was just the present, mercifully.