Ayear after, as the world prepares to remember the tsunami, Manni Kannan (2 1/2), a UNICEF symbol of the tragedy, faces a new life. Without his mother, who’s dead, and father, who’s in jail for crushing her to death. Police here say that Kannan’s father Babu—apparently under immense post-disaster trauma—killed his wife Dhaumani (21) inside their own house by crushing her head with a large stone. This writer had first captured Kannan’s tear-filled face after the tsunami, as he searched for his home that was washed away, leaving the family with just one set of clothes. Over six months later, on a Danish agency’s request, the search to recapture that face started. When he was tracked, he was almost two—a sprightly child who lived with his mother and two older sisters, Janaki (5) and Geetha (4). Even as this poor family was recovering from the tsunami’s wrath, Kannan’s father, a fisherman, deserted them. Half of Dhaumani’s monthly wages was spent on this dilapidated hut, leaving her with less than Rs 15 a day for the 4-member family. Dhaumani had recalled then that the Pondicherry government had given her about Rs 15,000 in three installments. A local social service organisation built a tiny thatched shelter for them, which Dhaumani’s husband occupied.
