THE TSUNAMI DEMON –PART TWO
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There was ten hours of journey before the unconscious little girl could reach Vizag . They journeyed by first class in an a/c cabin. Raju was son of a millionaire father who was a leading businessman of Visakhapatnam(Vizag). Raju himself was a reputed architectural engineer.
Raju was a strong willed and practical person. As the train sped towards Vizag, he shrugged off the other memories of the Chennai beach and thought now only about immediate action for protecting the girl from jaws of death. He and his wife took an oath among themselves that the girl was their very own and a precious gift from the gods.
Raju told the entire story to his father over phone — the pitiable state of dozens of orphaned children at Chennai beach etc and his decision to save one sweet little girl from the jaws of death and make her his own forever. His father simply remarked that he was proud of his son. He fully approved of Raju’s action and agreed that the scenes of the tsunami destruction he saw on the TV greatly moved him too. Raju told of the precarious condition of the child they were bringing home. He asked his father to get into contact with the leading specialist doctors. His father fully understood the anxieties of his son and daughter-in-law and assured that the girl would be saved at any cost .
He called Raju after an hour and told that he went to a doctor friend who owned a reputed nursing home. The doctor would send an ambulance with a doctor and nurse to the station. The child would be admitted in the nursing home and would remain there for as long as necessary under expert care and twenty four hour vigilance. If necessary other specialists would be called immediately. Raju and his wife felt greatly relieved and encouraged.
Raju phoned his mother who also fully approved of his action . Just as all traditional women do she advised her daughter in law to pray every minute. His mother was a university educated modern woman but very religious. Their family worshipped Rama who preached nothing but love, goodness and high morality.
Raju’s mother hoped that the little girl would become ok within a few weeks. Both Raju and Ragini felt a new courage and new enthusiasm after receiving such support. However in their hearts they still greatly feared whether the child would survive at all after such terrible convulsive shock to her delicate flower-like mind. They were very worried as the train sped on. All the curtains were drawn in the cabin which was kept brightly lighted.
Will the little girl be able to get over the trauma? Will she forget her parents, brothers, sisters, friends etc of her past life? Can she forget the scenes of destruction of houses and pulverization of cars in the ocean of swirling water of the mountainous waves?Ragini was extremely sad seeing the unconscious little girl. She always kept her hand on the child indicating that they dearly loved her and cannot live without her. Ragini had tears in her eyes. She said in most vehement tones that greatly surprised Raju, “My prayers and love should prove more powerful than all the medicines in the world”. She grew very philosophic and emotional.
Raju’s six year old son was staying with Ragini’s parents during their absence. He would come after they reached their house. But in the present circumstances he may have to be kept a little longer with the grandparents. His noisy manners may harm the health of the girl. The train sped on. Raju also discussed with his wife what arrangements were to be made at the house if the little girl was discharged early from nursing home and the medical treatment was to be continued at their house. The rooms should be made as clean and hygienic as in the hospital. A nurse should help full time at house to assist Ragini. He wanted that a back section of their spacious palatial house be set aside and made up for exclusive use of the girl. All the things there were to be removed and the corridors and verandas were also to be emptied and kept extremely clean. He wanted curtains in the rooms to be of subdued colors and to have only soft light in the rooms and that utter silence should be maintained in the area. He proposed that no person other than Ragini and the nurse should be allowed into that area. Even he would not enter. The dog should be sent away to house of Ragini’s parents.
Ragini was really greatly frightened after seeing the terrible scenes of destruction on the sea front at Chennai. She was still in a state of shock. Raju became very anxious about her state of health. He felt relieved that the train was fast taking her far away from those horrible sights. The terrible water walls ten meters high created by the tsunami wrenched perhaps hundreds of little children from their parents. In Vizag too there were giant -sized waves causing much destruction but it was not even a small fraction of the horrors seen at Chennai. At Chennai every day dozens of human bodies were being washed ashore.
Raju picked up the news paper lying beside him and glanced through the photos and stories of tsunami horror. Scientists say that a great pushing and sliding of rock plates, each the size of a small country and lying dozens of miles below the sea floor resulted in a giant earth quake of unheard of power (perhaps equal to 25000 atom bombs).This undersea quake in turn created the tsunami waves the water walls. The ferocious demon which carried all this energy for a thousand miles over the sea floor and moved forward flattened hundreds of villages along the sea coast of south India. It first crawled stealthily on the ocean floor for more than a thousand miles from Sumatra Indonesia toward the opposite coasts in India and SriLanka in the line of sight.
On the surface of the sea the waves were just like ordinary waves but mountains of energy was being dragged under the surface of the sea by the demon at ferocious speed . When this ferocious energy- wave encounters rocky shores, the water waves on the surface grow higher and higher and bulkier and bulkier. They attain heights of ten to twenty meters and become giant walls of water moving at terrible speed and energy menacingly towards the shore. They strike the hard ground or any other objects on the shores with great momentum throwing tons of water to great height and battering the shore in a most ferocious manner.
There is sudden increase in height of the water waves all along the shore and only on reaching the shore ! Suddenly the water walls start growing vertically directly from the sea floor without any prior intimation to the unprepared humans. The water, so harmless at normal times, is now changed to twenty meter high walls and claws out and flattens even big buildings.
An hour before the tsunami everything was so calm and pleasant. There was only a slight wave activity in the far distance. Such wave activity all of a sudden also surprised and confused everybody .There was no wind, no cloud, no rain, no dust storm . But suddenly the high water walls start rising in the near distance in the sea and move frighteningly towards the shores. The sudden giant sized walls of waves all along the length of the beaches frightened everybody and paralyzed their minds . They forgot to run and were devoured by the demon. The tsunami demon which visits once in a century is the meanest of god’s creation.The high water walls pursued hundreds of helpless people sitting on the sand, overtook them and swallowed them in one gulp. The water walls swallowed whole fishing villages and killed thousands of people. But while Raju felt sad for the deaths of thousands of innocent and poor people living near the sea coast his weeping wife Ragini was worried about the survival of the little girl ,now her very own dearest daughter, lying unconscious by her side in the speeding train.
The little girl even under sedation was having frightening dreams. She was dreaming of how the water walls washed away her dearest parents (the only support to such flower like creatures.) .She repeatedly dreamed of chairs, sofas ,beds etc floating on the water sometimes going under water and sometimes coming up. In her dreams she was perhaps asking her parents why all the water came. She dreamed of people and things floating like small rubber toys in the deluge. This explained the fright and vacant looks even in the few minutes she opened her eyes in a semiconscious state once in a while.Images of her real mother, gorgeously dressed in silks and wearing shining gold ornaments and always immersed in her prayers and religious ceremonies, floated before her mind . Morning and evening the girl’s real mother (of the times before the tsunami) prayed to the most beautiful and holy Ramayana gods. She often told her little daughter “If you pray to god the biggest demons runs away in fear!” Her mother was so beautiful in her silks and ornaments. When the little girl opened her eyes in half conscious state she found a new woman ,the weeping Ragini ,holding her . This utterly confused the little girl.
The girl opened her eyes for a few moments. She saw the brightly lighted train compartment, the thudding sound of the train and new people (Raju and Ragini) . She wanted to cry. But the crushing load of sleep and drowsiness overtook her. She slept on through the whole night. Even in morning she was fast asleep like a log. She would occasionally cry even in that semiconscious state and mumble “mummy” a number of times. Ragini and Raju now felt assured that the girl belonged to an educated city family. She might have been daughter of some prosperous people who were swallowed by the ferocious demon.
Raju and Ragini were sleepless all through the night. no amount of raju’s consoling could stop the tears flowing from his wife’s eyes. The unconscious girl was like a sleeping princess. The girl had such an intelligent face and beautiful features.The girl was moving a little even in her semiconscious state and opening her mouth as if feeling thirsty. Ragini put a few spoons of sugary milk into the girl’s mouth and the milk slowly went in.
Ragini was sad and happy. Sad that the girl was still in a very precarious state and happy that the girl’s condition did not worsen and showed a little improvement. The girl perhaps felt in the few moments of her wakefulness that the woman holding her in her hands i.e. Ragini was perhaps a servant maid sent by her real mother ! After feeling assured that Ragini was a good and gentle woman she again slipped into deep sleep induced by the medicines. The train journey was still going on and nearing its end.
(To be continued)
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