Not too fast, not too slow, is how I used to describe my city, the city of Madras. I am a proud Madrasi! This city has provided my dad with a livelihood and me with food and shelter for many years. This city was renamed as Chennai in the late 90s. But, I never understood why. It was an usual practice with us to write it as Madras when we mentioned in English and Chennai when we mentioned in Tamil. A pretty and calm city though with lot of traffic. A very beautiful coastline, supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the World - Marina.
December 26, 2004
6.45AM: I was been almost shaken awake by my mom and she wanted me to get up and come out. I never understood why. Sleepy and tired on a Sunday morning. Went almost till the door to find everyone else in my apartment standing outside the building gate. I was standing behind my mom, who had before then explained to me that there was a mild tremor some minutes before. I told her ’’Nothing will happen. We are in Madras. Its the safest place and no earthquake will shake Madras’’. Never went out of the house, and even succeeded in convincing my mom to stay back at home. Couldn’t sleep after that, so switched on the TV to find out on what happened and why this earthquake suddenly. No news, and then in Sun TV, there was a flash news which said ’’Earth quake in Chennai. People are terrified’’. Then the Sunday morning laziness set in and I was just doing nothing.
8:45 AM: My friend called me and said that the sea has come in. I was laughing. Then some people outside my apartment also started spreading ’’Rumours’’, that the sea had come till the school near our apartment. I actually live some 2 kms from the Marina beach.
9:00AM: Got a call again from my friend that the Besant Nagar beach (popularly knows as the Elliots Beach) is flooded with sea water and the waves have come till the pavement. There was supposed to be a huge crowd to watch this Mega Event of the sea water flooding the beach. A real good point to mention. The police there were announcing ’’Please go back home. This is not a safe place to stay. In this excitement of watching this, you would have forgot to lock your vehicles and your homes. Please take care and be alert.’’
9:15AM: The situation around my apartment got worse, and my neighbours started vacating to ’’safer’’ places. I had a very strong feeling that nothing would happen. So to confirm it, I wanted to actually go and see on what the actual situation is. I started and just reached my street corner, a few meters after that, I saw a wave, a wave of people running towards the West. I couldn’t believe my eyes. So many people running, then even I got a slight shock. But my only feeling even then was that the sea cannot come near our apartment, as we live on the other side of the Buckingham canal and so the waves have to fill the canal before crossing and coming inside our apartment. And by God’s grace it never came.
9:30AM: No news in the TV till now. Suddenly the flash news starts saying that the sea water has come into the city in 3 places and also in some places in coastal Tamilnadu. The Sun News Channel started reporting about this live in a few mins.
No one knew what it was, no one knew how it happened, no one knew it would happen and it happened. Until that day, not many, except for a few who were really good in vocabulary knew what the word ’’Tsunami’’ meant. That day, every one came to know about it. The worst Tsunami in 200 years, just hit Chennai and coastal Tamilnadu. Slowly we came to know that there were casualties, and then slowly that there were deaths, and today, its 30th of December, the death toll is supposed to have reached 10, 000 and they are still digging. Fishermen are missing in thousands. Tourists are missing, joggers are missing, and unfortunately 40% of this figure are children.
I would rather say that God has been kind enough. The Tsunami hit the coast on a Sunday morning. If it was a Sunday evening, then we would only start counting the rest of the people in Chennai. My friend has been there near the beach road, when this happened. He says, that he has seen dead bodies floating in water which was flowing into the city. Sun News had done the best coverage, and were even telling people not to go near the beach, as the lives lost may be more due to stampede than the waves itself.
The most beautiful and longest coastline in the world, turned out to be the most dreadful. The tourism industry and the sea food industry will be the worst hit of all because of this.
I even feel that the message which was given in the movie ’’The Day after tomorrow’’ is absolutely true. The movie was commercialized with the romance and love, but the message should have been a bit more stronger. The film industry in India does not have the money to produce movies of that magnitude, but in the movie it happens in New York and in reality it happened in Chennai.
My hunch is that this is a warning, and if we keep doing this pollution, some day, Mother nature will show us her real power. Some may say, that this is because of the moving of the plates under the sea, but I feel that this is a warning. I strongly believe in the concept of the possibility of Another Ice Age and the flowing in of seas. The Vedas say it, the Quran says it, the bible says it, Roman, Greeks every literature says, that the world will end with the sea flowing into land. But let us make sure that this world is a safer place to live atleast for a bit more time.
Stop Pollution, Stop Global Warming.