Towards one end of the beach looms the Madras Light House, a 150ft, 11-storey building painted red and white. An elevator ride—it is one of the few lighthouses in India that has one—takes you to the viewing gallery on the ninth floor. At that height, the sea appears very far away, an azure haze bound by gritty sand and wisps of sky. And deceptively calm and benign.
It has been painful 16 years of waiting for the two parents who had lost their daughter and son to the huge tsunami waves that hit the Tamil Nadu coast including Car Nicobar island on December 26, 2004 morning. And the wait for two families still continues for the reunion with their lost children.
"In 2018 an astrologer from Kerala told me that my daughter Apurva will come to us before 2020 end. The year is nearing its end. We are hoping to hear the good news," Indian Air Force Officer Ravi Shankar told IANS over phone from Delhi.
It was double tragedy for the Shankars. The couple's one-year-old son died in the tsunami while Apurva, affectionately known as Bulbul, got separated.
The day after tsunami, IAF officials and their families were shifted to Chennai. A month after the tragedy, he went to Port Blair and went around showing Apurva's picture.
Shankar is sure that his "dear daughter Apurva" is alive as he was told that a girl resembling her was at the tsunami relief camp but was taken away by a nomadic tribe.
Over the years, Shankar was told that Apurva was spotted here and there.
Once he learnt that she was seen with a nomadic group in the Kolar area of Karnataka. The locals there did tell Shankar that a girl resembling Apurva was from a tsunami camp in Port Blair.
Now the Shankars have a 11-year-old son, Amartya Arun.
"We are waiting for the good news to come about Apurva who will be 23 years now. I also searched the social media for Apurva but there was no luck," Shankar said.
Similar is the situation at the former IAF official Venkatraman's residence here.
The Venkaramans lost their son Arvind to the tsunami waves.
"My son is alive somewhere, that much I am sure," Venkatraman told IANS.
The day after tsunami Venkatraman too came here with his family along with other families.
Subsequently, when he went back, he was told his son was spotted in a relief camp in Port Blair.
At the relief camp the distraught father was told that his son Arvind was handed over to "two uncles".
The Venkatramans have a daughter who is working in a consultancy firm after completing MBA.
Both the fathers continue with their life with the hope that one fine day their lost child will knock at their doors.
ALSO READ | Odisha becomes first state to get 'tsunami ready' tag
