Indian Ocean tsunami - Tamil Nadu

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 26 December 2004, an earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia sparking a tsunami which swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean. In India, Choodamani and Karibeeran Paramesvaran’s children Rakshanya, 12, Karuyna, nine, and Kirubasan, five, were killed.

A bereft Karibeeran asked his wife to buy them some poison but Choodamani heard a voice from God telling her to help those in need. The next day the couple returned home with four children who’d lost their parents. They named their home Nambikkai which means Hands of Hope in Tamil and have looked after 42 orphans to date. They speak to Reena Stanton-Sharma about their remarkable story.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Karibeeran and his wife Choodamani Paramesvaran with some of the orphaned children. Credit: AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 2024, we were here for the gritty ones.
0:04.8	The adrenaline was building up in me.
0:06.6	With gripping true crime podcasts, people can shock you all the time.
0:11.3	Dead man running.
0:12.4	The word was out.
0:13.9	A wanted man may have staged his disappearance.
0:17.0	Intrigue to catch a scorpion.
0:18.9	Scorpion actually really does look scary.
0:21.2	I mean, how do you get through that fear?
0:23.0	And how are we going to get near him?
0:24.4	And gangster.
0:25.5	It was an organised hit in the middle of his heartland territory.
0:29.8	The Best of 2024 is here.
0:32.1	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:44.8	Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me Rina Stanchama. It's been 20 years since the tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people around the
0:53.3	Indian Ocean on the 26th of December.
0:57.1	Today, I'm going to tell you about a couple from India
1:00.3	whose distressing and heartbreaking story helped them turn their anguish into hope.
1:07.0	It's coming again! Come in again!
1:13.5	Oh my God!! Oh my God!
1:19.9	The extent of the devastation caused by the undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean is beginning to emerge.
1:26.9	This had been a peaceful Sunday on the beach.
	...

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