Prakash’s extraordinary story

Sometimes you do somthing and there’s a serendipitous outcome. You’re glad you didn’t take the alternative, possibly easier option. This happened today.

Cath, Helene, and I had a 9.30am train to catch to Kollam. A taxi took us to the station from our homestay.

The train was delayed 45 minutes. If you book a ticket, you’re allocated a carriage and seat. There are several ways to communicate where on the platform your carriage will be. This is necessary because the trains can be exceptionally long.

One way is to put numbers on the platform, say one to twenty. The number you need to go to for your carriage will be communicated somehow. In our case, this was a screen showing the number corresponding to our carriage. For example, say you booked a seat in the “Ladies only” carriage. The screen might say go to platform position fourteen, where the “Ladies only” carriage will be when the train arrives.

We waited by our number on the platform. However, when the train eventually arrived, our carriage, A1, was not where the indicator said. Someone pointed us to the front of the train. We rushed there. But when we got to the front, there was no A1 carriage. The guard told us it was at the back of the train! We didn’t want to risk going along the platform because the train could leave at any time.

We’d been told that you can’t always get to all carriages from within the train. We got on the train and tried to walk to the back. It was a long train! We continued walking. The train started moving. At several points, we considered taking any free seats. However, we carried on, seeing if we could get to the back. Eventually we reached A2, the second air-conditioned carriage. When we got to our seats in A1, it was a bay with two three-seat benches facing each other. Someone was sitting there. We sat and introduced ourselves. His name was Prakash. He asked if he should move. We replied if he wanted to move, he could but we were happy sharing the bay with him.

Prakash worked on the Indian railways. He’d finished his shift and was going home to Kollam, our destination too. He told us his son was training to be a pilot in the Indian air force. His daughter was just finishing school.

It turned out Prakash was also in the military. For a while, he was based in the Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal. These islands were, over time, part of India, the British Empire, and Japan (briefly during the Second World War). Finally, they were returned to India.

We asked about his time on the islands. Eventually, he started describing the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that hit the islands.

One day, Prakash was standing in a room and it started to sway backwards and forwards. He became alarmed and went to check on his wife and son (a baby at the time). His wife thought it was the wind! Prakash was more alarmed. He grabbed his baby son and they all walked down the stairs from the third floor.

There was a general instruction to move inland if such an event occurred. So Prakash, his wife and son, walked inland, trying to find the highest spot. The earthquake had cracked open roads and paths. They could see the tsunami coming towards them from a distance. It was tall, like a moving wall! They, with many others, settled on the top of a flyover. There was no higher spot they could reach.

The tsunami hit the flyover. They were above it. They had avoided the tsunami. They all sat watching events unfold. It was harrowing. They were lucky: relatively safe and alive. But over two thousand people died. As Prakash, his family and others waited to be rescued, they saw many dead bodies floating in the water.

Eventually, a helicopter came and evacuated the women and children. After Prakash’s wife and son were safe, he and other men stayed on the flyover “island”. The water level gradually sank. When it was shoulder-high, they could walk in the water. They ate coconuts and fish until they were rescued.

Earlier, Prakash had told us that a ship takes several days to sail from the mainland to the islands. A plane could fly in a few hours. The tsunami got to the mainland in a few hours. We began to appreciate how much damage a 10m wall of water, travelling at that speed, could do.

Just as Prakash finished his story, we arrived in Kollam! He said he was concerned we were bored! It could not be further from the truth. We said we were thankful and grateful to hear about such an extraordinary moment in his life.