Living in hope that Hiruni is among the living
A decade has passed by, but the small-size red toothbrush of a child still hangs amidst the adult ones in the bathroom of a home down Somadevi Place in Kirullapone.
The photograph of a beautiful little girl in a party dress with flowers in her hair has pride of place in the sitting room.
2004: The scene of the Peraliya train tragedy
The acute distress and the frenzied searching are no more – the sadness though has not left this father, mother and older sister. In their heart of hearts they still believe that she is alive. There has been no closure for them because there has been nothing to prove that Hiruni Tharushika who was then eight years old perished in the monstrous waves of the tsunami on that fateful December 26.
“Missing,” is the chilling verdict that Nihal Wanniarachchi, Latha and Naduni are grappling with about their younger daughter and sister who would have been 18 years old this year, which is also the 10th anniversary of the tsunami.
The foursome, including Hiruni, was on the train when the cruel waves engulfed it. They were on a family trip and it was very special because Hiruni had never been on a train before. Was it destiny or karma that made them board Train No.50 that day, for earlier they had planned to leave on the 25th but at the urging of some relatives who wished to join them, they had put it off by a day.
A special place for a photograph of Hiruni
In expectation of the trip, both father and daughter had danced and laughed the night before, nine of them setting off on that bright and sunny day which was not only the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, but also Poya. It was to be a train-ride to Hikkaduwa, then a ride in a glass-bottomed boat to see the corals, indulge in a sumptuous lunch and the return journey home.
The memories are raw and fresh like yesterday. When the first wave hit they were not unduly perturbed by this muda godagalanawa. As there was some water just outside their compartment, Latha had hoisted Hiruni onto the rack of the compartment. It was only in the turbulence of the second wave that the train became a toy, tossed and turned. In the compartment which was now on its side, a teenage relative was dead and their beloved Hiruni was nowhere to be seen. They straggled to higher ground and the Telwatte temple.
The search began with heavy hearts..…..starting from the train-wreck to schools where tsunami survivors huddled and to the Batapola Hospital piled high with bodies. However, the body of ‘Podi Duwa’ was not one of them.
The numerous posters that they put up in the area yielded a phone call from rice-mill owner, Sirithunga mudalali, of Aluthwela, who told them categorically that he had rescued a little girl stuck on the branch of an uprooted mango tree. He also described the pink T-shirt with long sleeves and a greenish denim trouser she was wearing.
Sirithunga who was looking for his wife who had by then succumbed to the waves sent the girl with his teenage daughter to the temple. The daughter does remember the girl but lost track of her when they neared the temple, Latha recalls, her face crumpling up with anguish.
Latha: Pining for missing Podi Duwa
There were many other leads – those who had seen the little one and tales of a boatman in Matiwela who had even been checked out by the Women’s and Children’s Bureau of the Police on Nihal’s urgings. All to no avail.
Much water has flowed under the bridge in the last 10 years for this family – inauspicious parala have been removed and some sections of their home re-built. Bodhi poojas and pin-daham are continued while the family has looked after a child who lives close to their home, seeing to her every need in clothes, shoes, books and even tuition.
Waiting for Hiruni’s return:The little girl’s toothbrush among those of the adults. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
With the predictions of astrologers ringing in their ears that Hiruni “kohehari hedenawa sapen” (is growing up in comfort somewhere), the hopes of this family have not been extinguished.
Nihal yet works at the Condominium Management Authority, while Latha manages their home and Naduni has just completed her Chemistry Special Degree at the Sri Jayewardenepura University.
While they will generously donate the little pairs of gold ear-studs that once belonged to Hiruni to some girls in an orphanage close-by, both Latha and Nihal cling to the hope that their little one lives.
“It’s not that my sadness has lessened but that my strength to face the sadness has increased,” says Nihal, assailed yet by searing thoughts of his Podi Duwa.
For when she was born, what had been foretold is that “pita ayage depala himi wenawa”, says Latha in tears, explaining that she was meant to inherit the property of outsiders.