The Aftershock
Jaswant Singh

Tsunami: 7 hours that Shook the World
by Satinder Bindra. Harper Collins. Pages 291. Rs 395.

Tsunami is a Japanese word, which translated into English means "harbour wave". It is caused by a vertical disturbance in a deep sea, which can be an earthquake, a volcanic eruption or a landslide. A gigantic undersea earthquake near the coast of Indonesia triggered the tsunami that wreaked havoc on many Asian coasts on December 26, 2004. Initially, the quake was measured to have intensity of seven on the Richter scale, but final observation raised the intensity to nine.

The sudden movement on the seabed moved the water up and down. The waves raced in all directions at speeds up to 800 kmph. In the deep sea, the movement was not so perceptible, but the waves slowed down and gained height as they reached shallow waters near the coastlines.

The retreat of the tsunami, which came in a series of waves, was as murderous as the approach of these waves. The deadly force caused destruction in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the coast of Tamil Nadu in India and the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Maldives in South Asia and Somalia in African. Nearly 2,20,000 persons in 12 countries were killed and millions left homeless.

Satinder Bindra, CNN’s Delhi Bureau Chief, was holidaying with his family in Colombo when the disaster struck. He forgot his holiday and, later, joined by other members of the CNN team, started filing spot reports of the disaster in Sri Lanka. This book is a first-person account of his experiences of reporting the calamity and its after-events.

The tale of death and destruction is well known. Bindra describes it all and, at the same time, tells the story of the courage and fortitude of those who survived, but lost many loved ones. You read about ordinary people who despite their personal loss rose to the occasion to help their fellow-sufferers.

If the tsunami brought a wave of destruction, in its wake also came a wave of courage by people who refused to give up and also a wave of worldwide sympathy and compassion. The international community came to the aid of a nation that had always treated the sea as a friend, and the same friend had turned on it with a deadly force.

Bindra records how the Indian Navy was the first to reach Sri Lanka with doctors and relief material, how an Indian Navy doctor, who had his own family caught in the tsunami on the Tamil Nadu coast, threw himself whole-heartedly in the relief operation. Later, he was informed that his family had been safely evacuated from the danger zone. The author describes how planeloads of relief material arrived from countries where many people could not even locate Sri Lanka on the map.

Apart from the international help, Bindra also records how several selfless persons who had lived through the calamitous seven hours offered help and sympathy to fellow sufferers. He describes how the killer waves wrenched children from the arms of their parents, how some children were left grieving for their parents whom they saw being swallowed by the sea. One such child he describes is nine-year-old Tharesh Liyanage. Bindra saw this child calmly identify his mother from a picture and later heard him talk about honouring her memory by working hard to become a scientist, as it was her wish.

The author calls this book a personal tribute to the courage of children like Tharesh. He brings to you the story of a small trader who had lost nine members of his family, and a forensic pathologist who worked day and night to identify the dead.

Then there is Baby-81, whose story became a symbol of hope in the midst of devastation. He devotes one full chapter to the children of Peraliya, where a train was swept away by the tsunami, killing more than 1,000 persons, the heaviest toll at one single place. He visited the site after one month. Some carriages were kept on the track and people were visiting the place in the same manner as the Americans visit the site of the World Trade Centre after 9/11.

While Bindra’s first person account speaks of how ordinary people became heroes in the face of adversity, the baser side of human nature does not escape his notice. He also escapes his notice.

He also records lumpen elements not only plundering the dead or the dying, but also fighting over the spoils. An angry mob in the town of Galle beat up several looters. One man suspected of having robbed a corpse was even stabbed to death.

The author makes haste to add that these were isolated incidents in a nation where hundreds of thousands of persons had done so much to help one another.

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