Chennai: V. Shanmugavel is in a daze. The 48-year-old fisherman says he could not just believe that “such a kind official” presided over the Collectorate at Kancheepuram when he went there Friday morning to yet again knock on the doors seeking the long-denied relief promised for the survivors of the December 2004 tsunami. “Collector madam promised she would give me land to build house within a month. Not just that. She enquired about my family and my bad financial situation, and offered to help my daughter get a job and also arrange funds for my two other daughters to complete college. I just could not believe what was happening; I had met many officials in the last 12 years pleading for help and got nothing. Until this happened now”, the bearded disheveled man said. His choice choked and he made no effort to fight back the tears as he recalled his encounter with the kind Collector, R. Gajalakshmi.
The eldest daughter Mahalakshmi has just completed Masters in microbiology scoring 79 per cent in the finals. “I was happy seeing my score card that came three days back; but when my father called this evening to inform that Collector madam offered to get me a job, I was super thrilled. For the first time in our troubled lives, we are seeing hope”, the 23-year-old told DC over phone from her grandparents house in Gobichettipalayam. She has been living there for some years along with her mother, two sisters and a brother under the care of the grandparents and uncles, while a few philanthropists funded their education.
Shanmugavel lived at a fishermen colony, Kanathur Reddikuppam, about 30 km from Chennai on the ECR, his food needs taken care of by the local head on whose boat he had worked. He mostly sleeps on the beach, unless it rains heavy.
On that fateful morning of December 26, 2004, Shanmugavel was just coming out of the hut on the beach, where the headman had stored his nets that provided the poor worker a warm bed. “I could not believe my eyes when I saw waves as tall as palm trees rushing towards the coast. There was no time to run”, he recalled, before starting on the sad tale of his rescue, hospitalization and surgery that resulted in loss of two-thirds of intestines for swallowing sand and garbage, and thereafter the long and depressing trying for the relief promised by the government for the tsunami survivors—three cents of land for rebuilding the lost house and Rs.25,000.
Wife had taken the kids to her brother’s place for succour and when nothing was coming out Shanmugavel’s petitions to the various officials—from the Kancheepuram collectorate right up to the Fort St.George—she doused herself with kerosene before pouring the fuel on the three daughters and one son. “Some neighbours saw this and stopped her in time”, Shanmugavel recalled.
But Friday morning’s visit to Collector Gajalakshmi appears to have ended all those travails for the fisherman, who had not gone to work since the surgeons had forbidden any hard work and he still vomited blood at times.
“Collector madam not only promised help in securing a job for Mahalakshmi, she also offered to arrange for payment of fees for my two other daughters. She gave me Rs.10,500 to pay my rental arrears of three months, asked her staff to arrange for my health checkup and scans and assured me her doors will always be open to this poor fellow”, said Shanmugavel, adding, “She is a devathai, truly. People of our district are lucky”.
