Thiruvananthapuram: It has been a long and hard five months for them, waiting for someone without a tinge of hope. Every time a minister said not even crores of rupees could replace their loss, they sat stone faced. The tears seemed to have dried up and they just sighed and listened to the speeches. Some of them however couldn’t hold back any longer as they kept muttering ‘we are taking money for their deaths’.
An old woman buried her face in her arms throughout the function and when her husband rose to receive the money for their missing son, she wept aloud. The revenue officials rushed to her and tried to console them, she wouldn't listen. When her husband returned, he was asked to calm her down, he just said, ‘let her cry’.
Vincent, the father of 15-year-old Vineesh, the youngest missing person had come along with his three other sons to receive the relief fund. “I had not gone to the sea for the last nine years. He took up the job for me. On that day I couldn’t even see him off to the sea. I was away when he had left, I saw half-filled rice bowl in our hut when I came back. My son hadn’t even finished his meal that day,” said Vincent.
Many women held themselves together bravely, holding their hands in prayer as their names were called out. Some felt weak to walk up to the stage and they sent their kids to receive the documents. When the children returned with deposit documents, they wouldn't even look at them. They held it folded between their arms and sat silently. tnn
