More by SMS

Some more of my cellphone dispatches to ChienSansFrontiers:

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Letter written by the wave displaced fishermen of Pudu Nemellikuppam to Sunil Dutt, visiting today. "Even though we are the citizens of India we would like to live without fear by the grace of God."

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Kuppu Desamuthu's house in Nemellikuppam is damaged, but it does not look too bad. This was not a poor community, most people have cellphones and email addresses. Her brick walls are mostly still standing. But I got a better idea of the damage from the partly broken brick railing of the staircase. A crow sat on it. It shook like a leaf in a breeze. That's what the tsunami did, the job the crow might finish.

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At least some people in Japan, of all places, are going to feel the tsunami's after effect. In both Pudukuppam and Nemellikuppam there are large concrete structures, with partitions, lying seriously damaged on the beach. Aparently, these were places where jelly fish were cleaned and stored before being exported to Japan. Now the wave with the Japanese name has put a stop to that.