33 days on, a Tamil Nadu village still in the dark

Want to lead a life the way our forefathers did? Head to Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district to see how life starts at sunrise and ends by sunset for its four lakh residents.

They have been fighting darkness ever since Cyclone Gaja stormed in 33 days ago, uprooting trees and electric poles.

Forced curfew

Shops near the bus stand and streets around Vedaranyeswarar temple do brisk business during the day but are mostly shut after sunset as people rush to their homes before the natural light fades away.

“This has been the situation for a month now. There is no point in running the shop as most people stay indoors,” said Mani, a teashop owner.

The darkness is not just in Vedaranyam but right through Gaja’s path stretching across 100 km from the shores of Vedaranyam to Pattukottai, Orathanadu and Peravurani towns in Thanjavur district.

Life in the dark

The cyclone, with a wind speed of over 160 km per hour, crossed the coast on November 16 between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam, leaving over 50 people dead, felling 12 lakh trees and uprooting more than one lakh electric poles (and over 1,000 transformers) apart from bringing down telephone towers. The State government has estimated the damage to be over ₹14,000 crore.

“I have never seen something like this before,” said Gunasekaran, a retired Village Administrative Officer in Vedaranyam. Damage has been so overwhelming on the power infrastructure that despite continuous work by officials, large areas are still without electricity. People’s patience is wearing thin They often resort to road blocks seeking power and water.

It is just 6 pm and driving through the bylanes of Sembodai and Kathirikulam villages gives one an eerie feeling. The silence is unsettling. Candles and kerosene lamps light the houses, albeit mildly and the moonlight made its presence felt. And that excites 7-year-old K Raghavi, who blinks at it through the damaged roof of her house.

“We have managed without power for the last 33 days. We cannot cook properly and don’t know what we are eating,” said M Rasammal, a 70-year-old housewife. “We have gone back to the past by using grinding stones like ammi kulavi, olakai and aatu kallu ,” she adds with a wry smile.

R Sethuraman, 70, says that candle is the most precious commodity in town today. After Gaja hit, volunteers and NGOs gave us candles, match boxes and lighters. But, the stock is drying up very quickly. There is scarcity of kerosene even as the State government gave one litre per family two days ago, he said. There is also the mosquito menace.

“Half-yearly exams are going on. Our children struggle under candlelights and kerosene lamps,” said N Kalaimani, Sethuraman’s neighbour.

No mobiles

The ubiquitous mobile phones have become useless as there is no way to charge them. But some like Kalaimani are not complaining. He said his family members communicate with one another a lot more these days.

“Yes, we are unable to speak to the outside world. We need to go to a place where there is generator to quickly charge the mobile battery to make an urgent call,” he said.

“But we’re talking to one another a lot more now and that’s a good sign,” he added with a smile.

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