January 07, 2005

Final few SMS transmissions

Fatigue and the strain of looking at a tiny telephone screen, besides the clumsiness of my fingers, took a toll on my SMS transmissions for CSF. Here are the last few.

***

The Jawahar Matriculation School in Indira Nagar had 7 rooms and an outhouse and a small playground. There was a wall all around. Nothing is left except part of the building and the toilet at an unnerving angle.The principal, Kulotheugnan, does not know what to do because what if another wave comes? Lying in the middle of the compound is a broken cassette cover saying 'SAVORY I love you'.

***

Narasimhan of Semmangkuppam why he does not tell authorities about his tsunami loss, a net and a boat, he says 'Who will listen to me, sir? I an illiterate and poor and viet don't case about me.' so he stays in his hut beside and below the Cuddalore highway. I look up to see a convoy of SUVs racing by at double the speed limit. Clearly one of those authorities is passing.

Which should really be:
I ask Narasimhan of Semmangkuppam why he does not tell authorities about his tsunami loss, a net and a boat. He says 'Who will listen to me, sir? I am illiterate and poor and they don't care about me.' So he stays in his hut beside and below the Cuddalore highway. I look up to see a convoy of SUVs racing by at double the speed limit. Clearly one of those authorities is passing.

***

Muthukumaran, his father, wife and 3 kids live in a shack above a paddy field in Kullanchavadi. Family has been here 60 years, fishing in the nearby salty river. No electricity, no water. They lost boat and nets to THAT wave, like a lot of people did who did not lose more. But you look at the way they live, and you wonder. why are we so horrified by the tsunami when lives are already hard?


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,

This is nothing to do with the blog. However, since all the emails i sent to you have bounced back, i had to resort to this blog.

I am a post-graduate broadcast journalism student at the Asian College
of Journalism, Chennai. As part of the course, we have to write a
10,000 word dissertation on any topic.
I have chosen to write my paper on Denotified Tribes. My interest in
this issue was piqued when I did a street play called 'Budhan' as part of
a college festival in Bombay. We went on to do this play at the World
Social Forum where we met many memebrs of the Chhara community and Mr.
G.N.Devy.

The dissertation requires us to have a guide, someone who is an expert
on the chosen issue. I have read 'Branded by Law' and a lot of DNT
related articles you have posted on Rediff. For this reason, I would like
it if you could be my guide for this paper. We could correspond through
email as we are based in different cities.
I'm looking forward to getting an affirmative reply.

Thanking You

Priyanka Bhattacharya
Asian college of Journalism
piyu_bhattacharya@yahoo.com