Tsunami 2004 - An account of my miraculous escape

I would count it to be one of the defining moments of my life. How much ever i try to forget it, the thought that i have escaped from a certain death on that dreadful day ... intermittently comes to my mind ... and makes my body shiver.

It had been a habit of mine to savour the Morning Sun on the Besant Nagar Beach in Chennai every Sunday. Sunday being a holiday, i used to get up early in the morning at around 5.00 AM. I used take my Bajaj Pulsar, leave my house at Saligramam, visit the Shri Saibaba Mandhiram in Mylapore and go to the famous Besant Nagar Beach. I enjoyed the mere sight of the Sun rising from the early morning clouds that linger over the Bay of Bengal. This was a sort of Every Sunday ritual for me.

But, 26th December, 2004 was indeed very different in every respect. 

It was winter, and I still decided to follow my daily ritual ... got up at 4.30 AM, and set out on my bike. But, on that day, suddenly my eyes went searching something in the sky ... and i could sight the 'full moon' on the sky ... and that made shivers pass through my body ... i know that it was winter and travelling early in the morning could cause shivers in the body ... but that day it was completely strange ... and those shivers were filled with some sort of fear (like those you see in horror movies). But i decided to continue my daily ritual. Went to the Mandhiram in Mylapore. Sat there for a little while ... and set out to go to the Beach. 

But the morning cold was making it very hard for me to drive my bike ... i was completely frozen and the mere thought of battling the mist on the beach on a winter morning, made me change my plans. I decided not to visit the Besant Nagar Beach this Sunday ... and headed straight to my house.

I reached my house at around 7.00 AM. My body was completely frozen and after changing to my Veshti Sattai, I headed to my bed ... with the comforting thought of immersing myself in the warm confines of my blanket. While i was just about to cover my body with the blanket, suddenly my bed was shaking like anything. My bed is an old teak wood bed, used by my Grand Father in those Golden Olden Days ... and hence that would shake a bit when we change from one side of it to the other. So, i thought i had been moving myself to get the best spot of the bed to make myself warm, while i was immersing myself in the blanket.

I slept for around one and a half hours and got up. My dad and mom were glued to the television set at that time. They were watching something which seemed like Hollywood movie on the TV. When my hangover from sleep vanished, I reaslied that they were watching the SUN TV ... and the pictures shown were that of the Marina Beach completely immersed in water. The Beach had completely vanished ... the Tourist Buses were floating on the Sea Water that had occupied the whole of the beach. It was like the Sea was swallowing the beach ... and was hitting the embankments near the beach ... as if to convey that it wanted more and more land to swallow. Then i realized that there was a Tsunami and the Sea had crossed its territory. In some other channels there were sights of water rising till the height of the Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. This Tsunami had its effect on the whole of the Tamil Nadu coast ... and some parts of the Andhra coast were also not spared.

After a while I came to know that there was an undersea earthquake near Indonesia and this Tsunami was a result of that. At that moment, I realized that the 'shakes of my bed was the time when earthquake had occurred near Indonesia ... and its power was such that in Chennai we could feel its occurance quite clearly. 

Suddenly ... my body shivered at the thought of what might have happenned had I went to Besant Nagar Beach that fateful day.

I used to continue my every sunday routine till that day ... and had decided not visit the beach that day. I thank the Bhagavan for saving me. 

The Tsunami had devastating effect on many lives ... scores of people living near the Sea in India had lost their lives. Villages submerged with salty water ... rendering the land worthless for some years. Indonesia was the worst hit ... Srilanka was effected too. Some reports suggest that the effects of that Tsunami were felt till the coast of Madagascar near the African Continent.

From that day ... I dropped my routine of going to the beach every sunday morning.

A miraculous escape for me indeed.

Vamsinath.
17 December 2010.