Devagi at Tsunami Camp

 

 

Devagi Sanmugam, famous cook/ cookbook author, raised funds from friends and well-wishers and went to cook for homeless Tsunami victims. Friends who offered to join her, were later scared off by the possibility of a cholera outbreak. But Devagi still set off, coaxed her two brothers into joining her, hired help, rented pots and pans, ordered ingredients, and cooked for thousands. She kept in touch by email from South India’s southern tip, Kanyakumari.

 

“This afternoon (Jan 8, 2005) we cooked like crazy for 1800 people… young and old. It was chicken curry with potatoes (we ordered 200 chickens from a poultry farm) because they were tired of vegetarian food. After cooking, when it was time to serve, there was chaos. Most people didn’t want to queue for food because they thought queuing up means a loss of dignity, and like begging. When we started dishing the curry, some refused to move until we added another ladleful. Some even scolded us for giving them just two pieces of chicken and one piece of potato each, plus a vegetable curry. They thought we were insulting them by denying them more.

 

The children, some as young as three, are the most pitiable. They brought their small stainless- steel plates. The men I hired to help me cook filled their plates with very hot rice which heated the plates and made them difficult to hold. I had to put the chicken on top of the rice. I wish I could feed them personally… they’re all orphans and they’re being bullied. Some adults shout at them or hit them.

 

I brought along seven bags of sweets and one volunteer worker said she would give it out after lunch to the children. We later found her distributing sweets to other volunteers who took a handful each. One of them even hid some in her bra! Probably for her own kids at home.

 

Tonight, we’re going to place orders for 2000 eggs, crates of Mandarin oranges and many bunches of bananas. I am dead tired from all this cooking and from the firewood. That’s the fuel we’re using for the cooking. There is no shelter, so it’s very hot and the crowd is rowdy - usually, some feeble person, like a child, will get burnt or bruised from the pushing. My brother and I got pushed several times and I burnt my hand too.

We rented huge pots and pans. This place I am writing to you from is St Mary Secondary School in Colachel, Kanyakumari. There are thousands of victims in various places- temples, church, school etc.

 

We went to some of the worst affected places in Muttom, Kil Muttom etc. All brown with mud. Guess what, the waterpower from the Tsunami was so powerful it had actually lifted a gas cylinder and left it on top of a coconut tree.

 

There are lots of old people just sitting around gazing at nothing. They’re probably still not clear about what hit them or maybe they’re thinking about the loved ones lost in the tsunami… very pitiful sight.

Most people have not bath for days and wore the same clothes from the first time I saw them. When I asked why, they said the piles of clothes stacked in the local chief’s office were more suitable for ‘white men’… in other words, they were not suitable for simple fisherfolk used to wearing saris, dhotis, and sarongs.

 

Today (Jan 11) a British charitable organization distributed toothpaste, combs and soap but the people made fun of these as they don’t have water. The nearest pond which is almost dried up, is 1km away.

Politicians came, social workers came, but most of them just say ‘hello’ or ‘help is on the way’ , etc and so the people can’t be bothered any more about visitors.

 

As for me, I wish I were a millionaire and can set up a huge home and school for all these orphans, to protect the children from those who are exploiting them. The three days I was in a camp in Talavaipuram, I noticed a boy, Jesus (that’s his name) standing always alone near a pillar and even when I offered him sweets, he would not come forward to take it. I was told his parents, grandparents and four siblings died in the water. He is only about five-years-old. You can see the fear in his eyes. I think it will take a very long time before he feels comfortable with water or people.