Home is where tremors rule and tides break

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">KOLKATA: The city isn''t home to everybody who survived tsunami-struck Andamans and is arriving at the NSCB Airport. For those who migrated from Bengal to the island, home is still the tide-ravaged islands and Kolkata nothing more than a temporary refuge. <br /><br />The Kar family moved to Aberdeenbazar in Port Blair nearly five decades ago.And to Sneha Kar, the youngest in the family, Port Blair is still home. <br /><br />"I was born there. That is the place which I call home, all my friends are there. I can''t wait to return," she said.<br /><br />The Kars slept out in the open after the earthquake and arrived in the city on Friday evening. <br /><br />"We will stay with our relatives in Purulia till the situation normalises back home," a family member asserted.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">The Kars were a joint family of 15 members who settled in Port Blair. <br /><br />"The island experiences mild tremors from time to time, but nothing prepared us for what happened on the December 26. Our home developed wide cracks and shook furiously that fateful day," informed a senior member of the family.<br /><br />The Rao family is equally determined to return. "My husband G. Sriniwas Rao is headmaster of a local school. We have been living in Port Blair for over two decades and don''t have plans to shift anywhere else," Sunita Rao said.<br /><br />Like the Kars, Sunita is staying with her parents at Barrackpore till the calamity storm blows over.<br /><br />Others like the Das family, have to make a fresh start. "I had set up a car servicing centre a couple of years ago which was doing well. Now I''ve lost everything and building the business from scratch is next to impossible. I plan to return to the city and start again," K. Das told <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">ToI</span>. <br /><br />Come quake or high tide, the Emerald Islands will always remain home for some, however unpredictable they may be. <br /></div> </div>