December 29, 2004. The AIDMI team visited the tsunami affected villages around Pondicherry and the same night met Christinani from Scotland. Like many past years, this year Christinani, with her friend Mary, celebrated Christmas and was planning to enjoy New Year in Velangni village. Late night walks on the beach as year ended were always most memorable.

Christinani and her Indian friend decided to visit Chennai, while Mary decided to go to the Church near sea. A heavy tide with huge noise hit the seashore and Mary got drowned in the tide. Christinani and her friend were having breakfast when they heard about the disaster. Christinani was crying when she was sharing this experience with us and was also thankful to God that she is one of the survivors.

Similar incidence happened with Mohammad. Every Sunday his young friends had a bet on who wins the cricket match on the coast. The match was to be played on the Marina beach. The day after the bet, Mohammad was ill and could not go to play the match on 26th. He was disappointed. And his illness became the blessings. One of the friends playing cricket died due to the tsunami tide. Mohammad became AIDMI's interpreter and a helping hand for, perhaps more due to his need to search for his friend that he knew was gone.