Simon walks with slow, measured steps. To hear his laboured, low voice, one has to sit close to him. Until November 29 last year, the 54-year old used to set out energetically from Poonthura daily to the sea.
On that day, when Cyclone Ockhi struck, he and the other four on his boat did not come back. Four days later, a fishing boat from Tamil Nadu rescued them and brought them to the land, half-dead.
“I can’t even think of that day now. In all these years of going out for fishing, I haven’t seen anything like this. I can still see the image of the waves towering over us. Our boat had overturned on the first day. For the next four days, we hung on to it on ropes tied around our arms. I spent days inside the ICU,” says Simon.
House sold off
While many of the others rescued have since gone back to the sea, Simon’s body does not allow him to. Mounting debts have forced him to sell off his house and a rent another one, for his family consisting of his wife and four children.
His eldest son has now taken up fishing, but he doesn’t venture into the deep sea. But more than his body, Simon is worried about the education of his children.
“The younger son, who was studying B.Com, has stopped going to college. Our daughter who was studying B.Sc nursing at a private college has also been forced to stop as the college is now demanding fees from her, after giving a relaxation for the first few months. What use it is of me being alive, if I can’t provide for them?” asks Simon.
Quite a few others like Simon have been unable to go back for fishing, as the waves had battered their bodies badly. While the families of those who died or had gone missing after Ockhi got compensation of ₹22 lakh from the e government, the ones with no visible injuries just had their medical expenses taken care of.
“Only the ones who suffered injuries would get compensation,” says Simon’s wife Mary Pushpam.
Many of the families at Poonthura, which lost a large number of its sons, are yet to get a closure as they never got back the bodies of their family member. Julet, wife of 48-year old Stellus, is one of them.
“It was a Wednesday like today, when he set out from here last. His group always stayed at sea for close to a week and used to go deep, beyond 80 nautical miles. Just like every other day, he told me he’ll come back, as he walked out with the food. But he never did,” she says.