His visit to a nearby church that fateful day saved him and left a spiritual leader alive, who could lead the remaining few who have lost their kith and kin and almost everything.

The flood ravaged ruins of the houses were scattered everywhere and I managed to get onto a piece of debris to have a wider view of the area.

Now I could see the far corner of the village "Kallapadu", a southern coastal hamlet of Mullaitivu which was totally devastated by the giant tidal waves.

My inner-eyes started to visualize in a distance spectrum gradually and now I could experience the tragedies of the coastal hamlets "Semmalai" and "Alampil", which were almost sunk underneath, where a few years ago, during my tenure as an officer in CARE International in the war - torn periods of the northern region, I visited extensively and was amazed by the hospitality of those village folk, but now everything has perished.

Still I could hear those melodies of a cinema song which was aired over a radio while I was resting under the shade of a flock of densely grown coconut trees.

Oh! What an illusive world, now everything has changed and everything has disappeared. When I turned my attention from the solid ruined wreckage where I was standing towards the distant northern horizon, the devastation of the coastal villages Manarkadu, Nagarkovil and Chempianpattu were coming to mind.

All were destroyed leaving a few to witness to the horrific tidal waves to the forthcoming generations.

Our next destination, the Mulliavallai hospital which is located nearly fifteen kilometers away from Mullaitivu towards the jungle interior, is telling many stories of the events immediately after the tidal wave disaster.

The hospital, which was originally for maternity purposes has now turned to caring for the injured people from the tidal waves. It is struggling with a General Practitioner who is assisted by a retired medical practitioner and a junior medical officer from a different hospital, while their medical service requirement is to be provided by at least twenty medical officers when compared with a standard developed country which has a healthy medical history.