Memories
Spirit of Survival

The life in Kannagi Nagar reflects the resilience of a community that survived the devastating tsunami in 2004.

Kala Vani remembers the day that changed her life forever. "It was 8:30 in the morning of 26th December 2004," recalls Vani, a transgender woman living in Kannagi Nagar on the outskirts of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. "I was at the fish market and suddenly people started running. There were big waves coming towards us," she says. Vani escaped unhurt, but there were thousands of others who lost their lives on that day. 

The Indian Ocean tsunami wiped out whole villages on the coast of Tamil Nadu, including in the capital, Chennai. More than 8,000 people succumbed to the natural disaster in Tamil Nadu while tens of thousands were rendered homeless. "My house was destroyed," says Vani, who lived in a slum cluster in Chennai's coastal area. Two years later, she received a new home in Kannagi Nagar, a resettlement built by the government for the tsunami survivors. 

"We call it Tsunami Nagar," says Vani, who is among nearly 100,000 people living in Kannagi Nagar, which is today famous for the eye-catching murals on its walls. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the city, Vani soon signed up to become a frontline warrior. Dressed in personal protective equipment gear, she worked in a Covid-19 care centre in Chennai during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago and later again during the second and third waves.

The willingness to help is writ large on the faces of the tsunami survivors here. Another Kannagi Nagar resident, A Suresh, saved many older adults who were inside homes when the tsunami happened. "The waves were three storeys high. We lost our homes and all possessions, " he says. "I lived in a hut that was also destroyed. The government gave me a house here in 2007," says Suresh, who like other members of his fishing community went out to the sea in tiny boats in search of a good catch before the tsunami.

Relocated miles away from the coast where they lived earlier, fishing community members like Suresh today do odd jobs to survive. Many have struggled to adapt to their new life while some found livelihoods outside traditional fishing. "I do painting jobs in houses these days," says Suresh. Satyaraj, another traditional fisherman, says he learned to drive after he arrived in Kannagi Nagar. "I drive an auto rickshaw today," he says.

Adapting to a new life hasn't been easy for the residents of the resettlement that came up nearly two decades ago. Unable to find livelihoods to support their families, many took to drinking leading to alcohol addiction and domestic violence. "Kannagi Nagar received the unwanted reputation as a place of crime and unemployment," says M Nila, a transgender woman activist who helps organise dance and music classes for children in the resettlement.

Kannagi Nagar residents are today determined to leave the past behind. And art is coming to their help. The arrival of murals on its walls has given the resettlement the sobriquet of an art district, the first in Tamil Nadu. Many artists from India and abroad have worked in the past two years to create murals in the new art district. Some of the artworks tell stories of struggle and survival. All of them point to a better future. "Kannagi Nagar is an important place in Chennai today," says Nila, a member of the Tamil Nadu Transgender Welfare Board. "Film crews now come here to shoot scenes. Art has transformed Kannagi Nagar."

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ChennaiMural-Article-Photo: A resettlement for the 2004 tsunami survivors in Chennai, Kannagi Nagar is home to about 100,000 people, most of them from the fishing community