National

Memories haunt tsunami survivor from Car Nicobar

Kolkata: Charu Das hated being woken up early on weekends; all the more after Christmas night revelry on the pristine beaches of Car Nicobar.

The cook who woke him up in his Car Nicobar living quarters three years ago probably saved his life.

“He woke me up and gave me a hot cup of tea. After a few sips, I found the ground shaking violently and ran out,” said Mr. Das, as he looked back on that fateful morning of the deadly earthquake and the tsunami that ravaged much of coastal Asia on December 26, 2004.

He was thrown to the ground several times by the force of the quake, but was lucky to survive. The cook died, trapped under the kitchen that collapsed.

Mr. Das ran for cover as he saw the sea surging like a black mountain. Those giant waves still haunt him. “After our rescue, I made my first call to my sister from Chennai.

She thought I was dead. We cried over the telephone for a while,” he recollected. He stayed with his elder sister Sandhya Ghosh in Baruipur on the outskirts of the metropolis. The tsunami altered the course of his life.

From an assistant transport manager in a cooperative, Ellon Hingo, working with tribals in Chukchucha, he became unemployed overnight. Depression gripped him for the first three months after the tsunami.

He returned to his old office, but found no work as operations had been downsized. He was also allegedly denied his dues. Now he makes both ends meet working as a physiotherapist.

Now, December has robbed him of sleep with visions of death and destruction, he said. “I cannot sleep without sleeping pills. As I close my eyes, the swelling sea comes forward to gobble me up,” said Mr. Das, who lost his wife and three colleagues in the catastrophe. — PTI

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