Shanmughavel
B Com final year student
Nagapattinam

(In the photo: The tall boy in blue shirt is Shanmughavel)

It had been a practice for Shanmughavel, 21, to wander around the streets early in the morning every Sunday as there was no college to attend. On Sunday, December 26, when he reached the bridge near the river, he noticed that the water level had risen dangerously. It was almost touching the bridge.

He sensed danger and ran towards the nearby Pattinamcherry village. On the way, he called for an ambulance from a STD booth. On reaching the village, he found that the water had had just receded, and all he could see was dirt, thorns, water bodies and entangled in them were dead bodies; strewn everywhere.

He first searched for those who were still alive. If he found any trace of life in any of them, he carried the person to the stretcher. But there were hardly any who were breathing.

His next big task was to collect the dead bodies. One by one, he along with some other men from the village carried them to one place, and put them there. By the end of that day, he had nearly carried 100 dead bodies on his shoulders.

That night, the young man could not close his eyes. All he saw were swollen dead bodies all around him. He could not eat or drink. Even a drop of water made him vomit.

Yet the following morning, Shanmughavel found himself making his way to the village searching for more dead bodies. He found 50 more.

In two days, he had carried 150 dead bodies on his shoulders.

But life was a living hell after that. He couldn't even close his eyes. "I thought I was going mad," he says. Finally, it was prayers that helped him come out of those dark days.

Text and photograph: Shobha Warrier