Lives Torn Apart: Portraits from Chennai Post Vardah
Cyclone-battered Chennai is slowly limping back to normalcy and how.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Vardah that left Tamil Nadu devastated, The Quint reached out to residents of Chennai to hear their stories.
Here are their tales after Vardah ripped through their lives, told through pictures and their own words.
Chezhiyan surveys the damage. He knows he’s stuck indoors for the next two days without electricity. His wife and grandchildren left for Kumbakonam two days ago. He hates Maggi.
Chennai’s Velachery neighbourhood has gone green now. Even the roads bleed green.
The bachelors across the road: "We got the house for dead cheap rent. We knew this would happen if it ever rained hard. We can survive on barotta and dum (paratha and cigarettes) for even one week."
"One more excuse to not bathe! He he!" adds one of his roommates.
Chellammal looks for a way in. She needs to go to the other end of this little street to cook lunch in two houses. "Even my landlord I can manage, but this storm will be the life of me!" She wonders if she has it in her to climb over.
An elderly woman thanks those helping her chop down the uprooted tress – with some coffee. “I don’t know their names. They’ve been cutting down the trees since morning,” she says. “So I made some coffee for them. No, it’s not chukku (dried ginger). Just coffee seeds ground and strained in hot water.”
“I started cutting the trees in the morning and they took over,” she adds. “No, they don’t know my name. They all call me paati (granny) now. You can also call me that.”
“Backstreet boys! Because we live in the street behind yours, hahaha,” chortles a group of youths when asked their names.
“What else is there to do. No power until the wood is cleared. We were just sitting doing nothing,” they tell me. “I don't think we'll have power tomorrow also. So no office either! We're all daily wagers now.”
Also Watch: Cyclone Vardah Unleashes Fury in Tamil Nadu
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)