Date:03/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/03/stories/2005010310830300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Seeking shelter in burial ground

By Sandhya Soman

TEMPORARY REFUGE: Stella Mary (extreme right) and her family find something to laugh about at the burial ground opposite the Kasimedu fishing harbour. — Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

CHENNAI, JAN. 2. Stella Mary flits between tombstones, her red nose ring sparkling in the afternoon sun as she braids her disembodied doll's blond mane. Scraps of this 12-year-old's life from the Kasimedu Pallam lie heaped at the burial ground opposite the fishing harbour since water washed away her house last Sunday.

Stella breaks into a smile every now and then. She laughs at the sight of her 10-year-old brother, Yesu Raj, and friend Sathish taking a quick shower under the burial ground tap.

Her smile widens at the sight of Chennai Corporation's lorry loaded with `sambar sadam' for the nearly 40 occupants who fled the tsunami's fury to live in makeshift shanties on the burial ground for the past six days.

She peeps into 22-year-old Murthy's pan to look at pieces of fish frying. Her smile recedes a little as she listens to why Murthy, a lorry cleaner, had to ``borrow'' fish lying unsold in boats on the beach.

"We need fish to keep the body healthy. And you should not throw food, especially in a place like this," says Murthy.

Stella in a tattered blue frock happily balances her plate of rice.

The rice soon disappears. So does her smile as she contemplates a cold night at the burial ground.