1.03.2005

Tsunami Steals a Generation and the Future

Posted on Agape's blog. Worth reiterating.

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Hopefully we do not become numb to these stories, simply because there are so many. It is amazing how short our memories can be, and a world away we will tend to forget or immunize our minds to this tragedy.

Shiva’s sons, Sunder, five, and Gautam, three, were having breakfast while their six-year-old sister, Abhinaya, fetched water from the village well when the wall of water hit.

A neighbor saved the little girl and Shiva and her sister each grabbed one of the boys and ran.

“I was holding him very hard, but it was a tremendous force. I just couldn’t hold on,” she sobbed. “When I lost him, I still believed that all my children would be alive. But 15 minutes after the wave, they brought me Gautam’s body.”

She never saw Sunder again. Her sister’s husband identified the small body as it was tossed into the pit of a mass children’s grave, one among hundreds.


I have three children. 6, 4 and 1. Heart wrenching. “She never saw Sunder again. Her sister’s husband identified the small body as it was tossed into the pit of a mass children’s grave, one among hundreds.” One among hundreds. One among thousands.

Reminds me of the lost sheep. The lost coin. Every single one is important. To Someone, everyone is not just “one among thousands.” Let us not forget.

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