It was the morning after Christmas and the year was 2004. The eastern half of the world had just had a massive earthquake that measured a 9.4 on the Richter scale. And all I felt was being thrown up in the air from my bed constantly for ten minutes straight at 6:30 AM this Sunday early morning. We all ran down from the fourth floor within minutes to find the whole neighborhood down there waiting for us. We were looking and waiting for the building to come crashing down on us for we had nowhere else to run. Ten minutes had passed. Twenty minutes went by and nothing happened. Thinking we were out of danger we went back to our routine unaware of what was to come.
Two hours later at 8:30 AM a bunch of friends and I were so excited about what had happened earlier. This was not our first time to experience an earthquake in Chennai. Every time it had happened, we would always hope that our schools would declare a holiday. It had never been fatal in our region. It had never gone beyond just that earthquake and a few tremors. But this time, nature had a different plan.
The epicenter of the earthquake was off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia right under the sea. The ripple effect of this had caused a tsunami within minutes on the coasts of Indonesia and had set off towards Eastern India, Sri Lanka and Andamans. A Tsunami? What is that? None of us knew what a tsunami was until that fateful day. We were not aware of such a thing as an under the sea earthquake, tectonic plates or nothing of that sort. All we heard while were catching up with each other that morning was wailing and crying, clanging of vessels and the sound of the waves as always since we lived only ten minutes from the beach. Soon we saw a group of people running helter skelter, while another group walked further into the beach wondering what had just happened. The first wave had done its damage and pulled thousands of people into the sea. This second group of people, out of curiosity walked towards the water wondering what had happened to those who were washed away only to be engulfed by the second wave that came just 15 minutes later at a height of 30 feet. Millions had died that Sunday, homes were broken, families were washed away as a whole, livelihoods were lost and what not. What we were seeing was indescribable. Something that will forever be etched in our minds.
A week had passed and we the survivors of this beautiful city wanted to do something to help. We reached out to 5 fishing villages across our coast and began our work with them. Over the next month we worked with them to rehabilitate them. Building new thatched roof homes, continuing classes for their children, teaching them music and dance, cooking food for them and with them and much more. Our four weeks with them was coming to an end. One afternoon we asked the children to draw anything that comes to their minds. We were not shocked to see that every single child drew a picture of the tsunami and what they had lost because of that. But in the midst of this was a handsome, blue eyed, ten year old boy called Mahesh.
Mahesh had lost both his parents to the tsunami. He was hearing and speech impaired, and with all this loss that he had experienced he said he wants to take us somewhere special. He took us to what used to be his father’s Catamaran, fishing boat and took us for a ride deep into the Bay of Bengal. He signed to us that’s where his parents are and that he will continue his father’s legacy of being a fisherman. He said that the sea did not scare him. Because life did not scare him anymore.
You asked me to write my favorite memory and I know that what I have written might not sound like a “happy” memory. But this memory stands out for me always because in the middle of that sea that took his parents, that little boy Mahesh taught me that the value of life is not determined by what we do with our lives but by how we live it. Those few moments I felt empowered by him is and always will be my most favorite memory of all. For that memory has started a ripple effect in me that continues till date. It helps me live life with no fear and helps me to take things head on.
