Born again. 39-year-old to celebrate ‘fifth’ birthday Dec 26 (Five years after tsunami)

CHENNAI - Thirty-nine year old Raghupathy Vaidyanathan, an executive in a city-based software company, will celebrate his “fifth” birthday along with his wife and two children Dec 26 - the day he was “reborn”.

“That was the day I and my family were reborn,” he told IANS, explaining how he escaped death that stared him in the face in the form of a blue wall of sea at a beach resort near here on that fateful day five years ago when the tsunami hit the Tamil Nadu coast, killing nearly 8,000.

What was supposed to be a pleasure trip for his family turned into an adventurous as well as nightmarish experience for the Vaidyanathans which they are yet to come out of.

Vaidyanathan’s 11-year-old son Anirudh has developed a phobia not only against the sea but also against other water bodies, including swimming pools, while his seven-year-old daughter Mathangi occasionally wakes up at nights with a start.

“On the night of Dec 24, 2004 night we checked into the resort. The next day was spent roaming around and visiting the nearby Dakshinchitra (a heritage centre). At around 8.30 at night, after a wonderful party, we went to the beach with Anirudh wanting to wet his feet in the waves,” Vaidyanathan mused.

“Surprisingly the waves didn’t come up to us and we went towards them without success. Not wanting to risk going further, we decided to turn back.”

At that time, the Vaidyanathans didn’t realise that in 12 hours time they would be running away from the waves fearing for their lives.

On the morning of Dec 26, the Vaidyanathans came to the glass-walled restaurant of the beach resort for their breakfast.

“I took my plate and soon there was a commotion. I turned to the left to see a huge blue wall of water. Thanks to god and the Karma of my parents, it struck me that we should run towards the road a km away,” he said.

Dropping the plate, he asked his wife Krithika to run for her life after removing her high-heeled shoes.

“God willing, I will meet you outside with the children. Otherwise you carry on with your life,” he shouted over the din.

With Krithika taking to her heels like a sprinter, Vaidyanathan grabbed his two children, placed them on his shoulders and started running.

“By the time I was out of the restaurant, the waves had smashed the glass wall and the restaurant got flooded. The water rose to chest level. I held on to my children tightly and waded through the water to reach the road,” he said, reliving those terrible moments.

On reaching home that afternoon and switching on the television, he realised the magnitude of the damage and the loss of lives in the tsunami - more than 230,000 in Asia, around 8,000 in Tamil Nadu and around 180 in Chennai alone.

During the past five years, the Vaidyanathans haven’t been to beach here even once.

“Like my son, I too have developed a fear for the sea. It took nearly a month for us to come out of the shock. However, my wife was normal from the next day itself and does not fear the sea, maybe because she reached the road before the water surrounded us,” Vaidyanathan said.

“Now I take life as it comes and try to enjoy every moment of it because you don’t know what the next second holds for you,” he added.

–Indo Asian News Service