Hara Kraishan, a 40-year-old fisherman, is standing alone on the beach, staring into the distance in a daze and helplessly. Maybe he is waiting for some beloved one to return or maybe he is planning when he can go fishing again.
The morning sun is shinning in the sky. The vast sea of the Indian Ocean is rolling up to the once crowded Marina beach along the eastern coast of Chennai, capital of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu.
"The frightening tsunami has claimed three members of my family. My little son and daughter and my brother were playing when the tidal waves came suddenly in the morning. They were swallowed along with hundreds of other people," Kraishan told Xinhua.
At least 28 bodies including two foreigners are said to have been collected on the Marina beach after the Dec. 26 tsunami and the livelihood of hundred of fishermen and their families has been relentlessly taken away, with their fishing boats and nets either damaged or washed away by the rough waves, witnesses say.
A sad Kraishan wants to go fishing again and make a living as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he says, the local government does not allow the fishermen to take to the sea within three months since it fears that tsunamis may come again.
On the broad and smooth beach, which is approximately three kilometers long and 500 meters wide, dozens of damaged fishing boats and numerous nets are seen scattered here and there.
The most popular beach in Chennai, which has been deserted in the past days, however, comes back to life. Vendors are peddling their soft drinks and socks. Some young couples are roaming hand in hand. Dozens of teenagers are playing their favorite cricket on the ground between the busy coastal highway and the beach.
Sentil Kumal, a 29-year-old construction engineer, is playing beach volleyball devotedly with his friends on the soft sands. He thinks that for the people living in the city of Chennai, life has returned to normal.
"People again come here for a walk in the morning and evening and the life is going on anyhow. No matter what happens, we have to face bravely," says Kumal.
To the south end of the Marina beach, there is a fishing village named Nochokuppam. About 4,000 fishermen and their family members live in many three-story old buildings and slums about 30 meters away from the sea.
It is not difficult to imagine what has happened to the poor fishermen in the nightmare. A lot of slums have been washed away by the tidal waves.
A young man does not want to do nothing but wait for the government's relief fund. He has begun to clear the ground piled with debris and make a shelter for his family.
India is one of the countries devastated by the massive quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale and the resultant tidal waves, with 1,022 people dead and over 5,500 people missing. It has also suffered a heavy economic loss of about 1.7 billion US dollars.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pledged all kinds of help to the affected fishermen and ensured that their livelihood should not be disrupted in anyway. However, Singh does not forget to urge his countrymen to turn the tsunami disaster into an opportunity for rebuilding the coastal and fishing economy in the affected areas.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2005)
