Tsunami tore away one-year-old from mother's grip

KOLKATA: Tarun Sarkar and Debojit Das,both air force officers, are neighbours in Krishnagore. They were neighbours inCar Nicobar too. Life had treated the friends equally, until BlackSunday.Both families were caught in the killer waves that wiped outtheir base and killed scores of their colleagues. But while Sarkar and hisfamily had a mira-culous escape, Das lost his darling son, all of one year, tothe tsunami. The waves tore Baby Rudra out of his mother''s grip. Then, theydragged her in too. The IAF officer made a desperate lunge but managed to reachonly his wife. The baby did not stand a chance. The two families returned toKolkata on Thursday.Sarkar, his wife Susmita and three-year-olddaughter Trisha were one of the few families who managed to escape Sunday''scatastrophe. However, everything they owned was washed away in the surgingwaves.Their families in Bengal had no clue to their whereabouts tillthe evening of December 27 when a call confirmed that the trio were alive. "Wehad lost all hope of seeing them again," said Jyotsna Chatterjee, a relative ofthe Sar-kars. "It was nothing short of a miracle," remarked Neeta ChatterjeePal, another relative.On the other hand, a heartbreak for DebojitDas, an IAF doctor, and wife Pappa. "As the water surged into their quarters,Pappa desperately clutch-ed her baby but they were both swept away. Luckily,Debojit managed to grab his wife," said a relative.