Mayhem on Havelock

It was  2 pm me and Sachin (my husband) were at one of the shacks devouring a red grouper  wrapped in banana leaf and grilled. Usually we end up very hungry and starving after our scuba dives and the food is an absolute completeness then! So both of us with our divers’appetites really didn’t care about the frenzy (quite an unusual one for a island) on the street. One our tummies were satiated we moved towards our resort about a kilometre away. On our way we saw a group of foreign nationals staying in our resort running towards the hillock. We stopped by a grocery store with a television set where everything was being shut, to find out about the earthquake that had hit Malaysia of 8.9 ritcher scale! And a Tsunami warning was declared for the entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Southern coast of mainland India.

“Oh my god”, I said, “Sachin what are going to do now!?” Sachin was definitely calmer than I were, he told me to run towards the resort and pack a small bag with bare essentials, some food and our wallets. He went to hire a two wheeler for us to go on the other side of the mountain which had a motorable road at a height! I was thanking my stars for having him right next to me. His training (in the army) allows him to keep his cool and work towards the situation much better than I can think of! As I reached the resort two of the girls we made friends here on the island Darya from Germany and Nicola from England joined me in my room. They had packed a bag already and were moving towards the hill. I convinced them to join us; Darya bought the plan immediately and left to get another scooter. As me and Nicola were waiting for the other two to return I started making call back home in Pune to tell them about the situation. To be honest I was more worried about our three year old daughter Saee, whom we had left with the family to go on this vacation for the two of us. It stuck me like a lightening that no matter what me and Sachin have to be there for Saee. That one moment, I realised what it is to be a parent. Everything else in your life takes a backseat when the catastrophe is around the corner and you want to come out of it, not for yourself but for your child first.

The resort was empty, everybody was walking towards the hill. Nicola and I were getting desperate waiting for our riders. Vinnie, the owner of the resort came to us to ask us to vacate immediately. I was trying to explain him the situation and Nicola cried, “Here they are!!”

We got on our scooters, Darya was not very comfortable riding it on a curvy, steep road. So I took over with Nicola behind me and Darya behind Sachin. It took us fifteen minutes to reach on a higher ground and decided to stop on a flat Platform. By this time Sachin was making all the tactical decisions for the three of us. We settled down under a tree. We were actually on west side of the mountain and the tsunami warning was on the eastern coast, so practically we were at the safest place on the island. Sachin constantly kept in touch with the resort owner as he had a radio set with direct connect with weather dept of government. It was already two hours, all of us were getting restless. The only bottle of mosquito repellent which Nicola was carrying was over. I had a packet of biscuits and some water. Darya and Nicola had skipped their lunch because of the whole chaos; they finished of the whole packet. It was getting dark, the last light was becoming almost invisible. I was constantly getting calls from the family and friends. We were assuring and reassuring everyone of our well-being. Ironically it was Darya’s father from Hamburg, Germany who gave her a call and told about the warning being called off and the alert still on. We still wanted to make sure and confirmed the same from friends in Pune. As we rode back into the civilisation, we saw people getting down from the hillock. It was already 8 pm, quite late by the standards of an island. The resort Cafe had no cooked food as everyone was just getting back. The cook decided to fry some potato chips for everyone and we toasted to life, friendship and camaraderie.