For kids orphaned by the sea, one year has been one too many

Sita Laxmi, barely 5-years-old, finds her new life so different from the one at her seaside home in Katchal where father ran a grocery shop and went fishing to supplement his income. Her best friends were her four brothers. But it all ended when the earth began to shake and mother ran out, pulling Sita by the hand. As they scampered away from the shore, giant waves raced inland. Leaving Sita, her mother ran back to the house to save whatever she could.

The waters crashed in within seconds. And then there was nothing except leaping water. Her brother, Balamurugan, picked her up just in time and rushed towards a hillock. Both survived the tsunami. When the waters receded, Bala scoured the debris for more than 48 hours. It yielded nothing. No home, no mother, no father, no brothers. They were taken to a a relief camp in Katchal. After some months, they were shifted to the Seva Niketan orphanage in Port Blair. Admitted to Class I, she has a busy schedule. She gets up early in the morning and is ready for school by 6 am. After school ends at 11.45 am, she returns for a bath and lunch. There’s no mother to take care of her, so she washes her own plates, takes her medicine. After study hours that stretch up to 8 pm, dinner is served. Tears well up in Sita’s eyes only when she goes to bed at night. She tosses and turns in the empty bed till Nikitadidi, a Class VII student, comes to sleep by her side.

Balamurugan, suddenly an adult who has to now take care of his sister, keeps a constant eye on Sita. He narrates how desperately he wants to stand on his own and take care of the sister whom he saved from the jaws of death. Yet Bala finds the call of the sea irresistible. Now in Class VIII, he hopes to get back to the seas some day in those dongas. Neelamma, the eldest of three children of another family, orphaned by the tsunami, too pursues her studies passionately. In her childish vision, she sees herself as a ‘‘Madam’’, a woman who is respected by people. Her aspiration would have had an easier fulfilment had destiny not intervened so cruelly. ‘‘Father had gone out to the sea very early on December 26, but Ma was at home,’’ recalls Neelamma. ‘‘Ma would have been alive today if she had not gone back to the house after the quake.’’ The little girl, her siblings and mother had been sipping tea when the quake hit. They ran out, but in the short gap between the quake and the waves, the mother went back to retrieve whatever she could. ‘‘We ran to a temple on high ground,’’ says Neelamma, ‘‘but there was no trace of either Ma or father.’’ Neelamma’s five-year-old sister Rajamma and eight-year-old Rajesh also live at Seva Niketan. Rajamma was admitted to school this year while Rajesh studies in Class V. He hopes to be a cricketer. Amid the lines prematurely etched by the tsunami on their innocent faces, there is a sparkle though. A a faraway hope that one day they will become a cricketer, a fisherman, a ‘‘madam’’.