Unaware of parents death, kids long for home

CHENNAI: Amused at people peering through the loc­ked glass door of the small room in the government hospital at Ponneri, a day after the boat capsize at Pulicat lake in which 22 people died, the three survivors — Janagaraj (13), Paul Dinakar (10) and Paunraj (12) — were ill at ease, confined as they were to their beds. They were fidgety, having been lying on the hospital beds staring at the roof all day, even as their aunt was busy trying to keep curious onlookers at bay. The tell-tale signs of Sunday’s trage­dy had disappeared from the kids’ faces. The boys simply wanted to go home.While their aunt and a cousin maintained vigil, the youngest of the three, Paul, suddenly got up from the bed and declared, “I want to go home.” The aunt coaxed him back into bed saying, “Let others come.” A few minutes later, Paunraj joined Paul in the banter. He snatched a mobile phone from his cousin Braveen and began fiddling with it. Braveen smiled and said, “He is the naughtiest of all the cousins. Quite mischievous but loves mobile phone games. But he was the only one who kept on asking about his parents.” The boys had not been told that, 10 kilometres away in Gummidipoondi, their parents’ bodies were being buried.Paunraj said in a sad tone, “I like mobile phone games and computer games too. I would upload the games to my computer. But my joystick is not working.” A visibly bored Paul snatched the phone from Paunraj and, punching the keys with his tiny fingers shining bright with pink nail polish, said, “I like to play cricket game on the mobile phone and watch cartoon channel. Wish there was TV The aunt had a faint smile on her face as she said, “This boy likes to do everything, wear nail polish and mehendi too.” The cousins continued to play, sometimes snatching the phone from each other, even as the eldest of the three, Janagaraj, slept peacefully.While this was going on, their aunt, who had stepped out for a while, breezed in and held up a gold strapped watch and a gold ring and asked Paul if those belonged to his dad Jebadurai. Paul strained his little eyes and studied the items before saying a ‘no’ for the ring and a ‘yes’ for the watch.Bored with eating plain idlis, the boys got some relief when a group of relatives trooped in and offered them a cool drink. The boys recalled that Christmas had always been a fun day for the kids in the family. Paul was visibly excited as he narrated the family’s trip to Queensland amusement park last year. “This year too, we planned to go to the same place but Asir Uncle (Asirvadham) and Thanga Uncle (Thangaraj) wanted to go to the lake. So, we changed our plan. I had been to the lake twice before but never went boating,” Paul said, gently stroking his left hand, which was swollen from an intravenous injection. Paunraj, who was till then busy with the mobile phone, joined in. Pointing at the clothes he was wearing, Paunraj said, “This is the dress I got for this Christmas.” Christmas will never be the same again.here.”