About two year ago, in the first week of May I went to this village called Ammankoilpathu, which is a small village near Karaikudi (which happens to be in the sate Tamil Nadu) . What was I doing there? Counselling the victims of the Tsunami. It was an eye opening experience. Now, in this village there's this girl called Kokila. So far, the only times when I've heard about girls like Kokila and her family is usually in stories written by Indian authors,who lead dramatically sad lives, who have to fend for themselves, are bonded labourers by the time they turn 7, but here I was, observing the conditions for myself, not fiction, no pages to flip, it couldn't have been more real.
These people gave me the feeling that they were leading the most luxurious life ever, in my opinion, the place couldn't have looked shabbier. There were lessons to be learnt, not one or two. I was a part of the counselling team, but my purpose was dissolving fast for they seemed to be the happiest people, who were content and glad simply to be alive. How many of us take our life for granted? Here's a family, who live right beside the grave of their 8 year old son who couldn't fight the waves, don't have a home. Their makeshift home is made of aluminium, roasting them alive, and Kokila is zooming around the place asking me to check out her room (that's about three-fourths square meter), is singing all the latest Tamil songs for me, insists that she's excellent at painting nails and I should get mine done from her, and can't stop talking about how much fun school is and how she can't wait for school to re-open. Not a word about the awfully frightful experience, not a word about how all her belongings were cruelly washed away, not a word about the puppy that was the centre of her life (so her mother told me) which was also lying beside her brother. I couldn't handle it. It wasn't the terrible stories that the other families had to render, or the magnitude of the damage that overwhelmed me, but the happiness and hope in Kokila's eyes that got me weeping. We all have a story to tell, and we've all learnt from these experiences that float into our lives, making us acknowledge the strength and power of humanity. Let's keep these stories going around. Let's keep the faith.
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