Noyanie

Noyanie
Irudayapuram
Muthur
What happened on the 1st August 2006 was a night mare, un forgetful incident in my life. It made me to think about my life. Is it a life ? Do I need to live like that ? Is it a sin to be born as a Tamil ?
From Irudaypuram we came to Muthur to go to Trincomalee.. Around 1.30 pm, we heard that a navy vessel was attacked. So we went to the convent and stayed with the sisters in Muthur. It was the feast day for Sr. Init, we were happy to join the celebration. Next day early morning around 2 am, we heard the sound of shelling and bombing all around us. The sound continued the morning also. We were so afraid, we clung to together and prayed. Around 12. 30 pm we could hear multi barrel guns falling all over the place. The sound was so much as if it was going to break our heart. The communication was completely cut off. At that time we heard a shell hitting the church, one young boy was killed and many wounded and all the people from the church rushed into the convent. I could still hear the cry of the mother “ Yenda pillayappa “ [That is my son]
We saw some LTTE cadres coming into the church, took the body of the boy and buried him in the land adjacent to the church. By this time we heard the sound of the Kefir planes and the bombs hitting Muthur. We were all sitting inside the toilet room, crying and praying. The selling and bombing continued the whole night.
The same thing happened in the second day also. We were all hungry but we couldn’t come out because of heavy shelling and bombing. We heard the news that the ambulance vehicle which took the injured people was also hit by the bomb and the driver, his wife and others died. It was really a shocking news to all of us since we know the people who died.
The third day, LTTE has asked us to dig bunkers and to stay inside. They have warned us of heavy fighting. We heard the news that the Muslims were leaving the town. So Father, sisters, D.S., G. S., and some of us started moving out with white flag in our hands.
On our way we could see destroyed buildings every where. On the 64th mile post we saw two ambulance vehicle which was hit by the shells.
Near Irudayapuram bridge we were all asked to stand in a line by the LTTE for checking. We sat there with some eatables and water. Suddenly there were shells all over us. All of us started running here and there. 40 to 60 shells came at the same time, Where to run ? Every where shells. Finally we ran into sluggish mud and trapped into the mud up to our hip. I had no energy to run further. But my friend Kamilini helped me and dragged me out. We ran together and there only I understood what friendship is. We could not see any body else. We were so tired and so thirsty, we drank the muddy water and again started to run. We heard the sound of Kefir planes and then we saw it flying just above us. We were the only two there and we were very scared. We ran from there and we met two boys and they gave us some food. From there we got into a truck and we came to Chinnakulam. In Chinnakulam we went to Kamilini’s uncle’s house and only a dead body welcomed us. We did not want to go inside since all were weeping and
crying. For the whole night we were going round and round searching for the people we know. Our legs were swollen and it was so painful to walk. With pain and frustration I prayed to God to take me from this world. Suddenly I saw my father coming towards me. I just embraced him and cried. The joy of seeing him and the pain and suffering, I was crying uncontrollably.
We started to walk, we saw the whole village completely destroyed and bodies scattered and bad smell from every side. With prayer in our lips we walked but prayer refused to come out from my mouth. I walked like a dead body. Suddenly we saw soldiers all around us and they asked us to stop and we stopped. We thought that they were going to shoot us. Seeing the pitiable condition they gave us water and they felt sorry for us. We walked to our village and we could not find people. There is nothing to eat and drink and the army gave us some rice and vegetable. We have heard from others that our group have already reached Trincomalee. So we also started to walk through the forest to reach Trincomalee. We saw elephants and they did not do any harm. May be the animals have more compassion than the human beings. We drank water from the river and on the way some people gave us some cow milk to drink. Finally we reached Alengkeny camp which was maintained by JRS. Their love and care was very much soothing to our body and mind. We stayed there for three days. We heard that my mother and brothers were in St. Xavier’s camp, so I went to that camp to meet them. Now we were all together and that gave me some joy and hope