It wasn't a school day. Why was Vishney Ambalavanar's dad shaking her awake? "There was a tsunami in Sri Lanka!" she remembers him saying. She rolled over and went back to sleep.
But when 14-year-old Vishney woke up and saw the TV, she snapped to attention. Huge waves were washing over Sri Lanka -- the island nation where her parents were born and her aunt, uncle and cousins still lived. Vishney, who lives in Ellicott City, saw cities and beaches she had visited in summer 2002 smashed to pieces and people carried off by the churning water. Thousands across southern Asia were dead.
Local kids with family ties to Sri Lanka include, from left, Ram Ambalavanar, Ganesh Subramaniam, Sahana Sinnarajah and Vishney Ambalavanar.
(Craig Herndon -- The Washington Post)
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"We thought, 'What about Mama and Mami?' " she said, using family nicknames for her aunt and uncle.
In the Washington area and around the world, people were thinking about loved ones in the countries devastated by the huge Dec. 26 earthquake and the deadly waves it caused. More than 150,000 people were killed in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other countries.
Vishney's aunt and uncle were swept away by the seawater, but survived by clinging to a broken wall. When they phoned family members outside the country later that day, Vishney said, "they were still in shock and screaming."
For the Christmas holidays, the aunt, uncle, cousins and other relatives had rented a van and left the city of Colombo where they lived and headed to Hikkaduwa, a popular beach town. Her aunt and uncle had gotten out of the van to check out some hotels just as the first wave surged inland.
"They suddenly were in the water and broken glass was cutting them," Vishney said. Her uncle helped her aunt get onto the wall, "and then she pulled him up with her." One of Vishney's cousins later described clinging to a stump as debris and screaming people swept past her.
The tsunami was on the minds of kids and adults alike last Friday evening at the Murugan Temple of North America. The Hindu temple in Lanham is where the Ambalavanars and others from Sri Lanka and south India pray.
Adults dropped off clothes to be sent to tsunami survivors and put money into baskets on a table near elephant-headed god, Ganesh. The children said the tsunami is an awful way to be reminded of their roots.
"The kids in school don't want to talk about it, because it's so sad, " said Ganesh Subramaniam of North Potomac.
"In class, we were talking about [the Greek god] Poseidon, and how he could make big waves and a stormy sea, and I'm thinking, what about what just happened?" said 11-year-old Ganesh, adding that there aren't many other Sri Lankan or Indian kids at Cabin John Middle School.
It helps coming to the temple and talking to Sri Lankan friends, Vishney said, smiling at Sahana Sinnarajah, 10, of Gaithersburg.
"We talk about the death toll and whether other countries are sending enough aid," said Sahana, who sold yellow Lance Armstrong bracelets to raise money for tsunami survivors.
For Vishney, the disaster has deepened her desire to go back to Sri Lanka. "People are suffering. I want to experience what they're feeling and know that it's something that could have happened to me."
-- Fern Shen
