Ilankai Tamil Sangam

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Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA

Untold Tragedies #2

by K. Mylvaganam, July 7, 2008

If only our parents had lived, all of us would have got a sound education and led a prosperous life. One cussed bomb destroyed our lives. For the pilot it was only a pressing of a button, but it devastated the lives of all of us.

Untold Tragedies #1

This is the pathetic story of Mrs Kunalingam Jeyaruby. She states how her family got devastated, when her parents got killed in a bomb attack.

“We are from Chavakachchceri on the Jaffna Peninsula. With the intention of doing cultivation, our father decided to move to Kandavalai Velikandal in the Vanni in the mid-1980s. My father was doing very well. We are 6 siblings; I am the third in the family. I and the three younger than me were born in Kandavalai. My eldest brother who was in the LTTE became a Martyr and my other elder sister too is in the LTTE cadre.

On 23.03.1998 I went to our aunt’s house while the rest went to school. Our parents were at home. A Sri Lankan Ari Force Kfir jet that came at 7.45 a.m. bombed our house. When I ran home I saw my father’s body on the road and my mother was profusely bleeding and panting for breath. I didn’t know what to do, but cried loudly. My mother opened her eyes and looked at me once and her eyes closed again. I knew that she too had left us. I couldn’t bear it and fainted immediately. I loved her so much. They too loved us immensely. To pay back their love, I toiled very hard all alone to educate and bring up the ones younger than me.

All four of us stayed with aunty for four months. The LTTE gave us a small plot of land, which had a few coconut palms in Vaddakachchi. We survived on the sale of the coconuts and the thatches I wove from the coconut leaves. I was only 16 then. Though I was in the 10th class, yet I gave up schooling to look after the younger ones, earn a living and maintain the house. My brothers studied only up to the O-Level and started working. I got married, but I am keeping my sister Jeyagowri with me. She is now employed as a sales girl in a boutique nearby.

If only our parents had lived, all of us would have got a sound education and led a prosperous life. One cussed bomb destroyed our lives. For the pilot it was only a pressing of a button, but it devastated the lives of all of us.

No.

Name

Relationship

Date of Birth

Occupation

01

Selliah Thangavelu

Father

04.08.1949

Farmer

02

T.Sivapakium

Wife

14.12.1955

Housewife

03

T.Krishnaveni

Daughter

18.12.1975

LTTE Cadre

04

T.Jeyaruban

Son

30.03.1979

Martyr

05

T.Jeyaruby

Daughter

03.04.1981

Housewife

06

T.Jeyaseelan

Son

31.03.1984

??????

07

T.Jeyagowri

Daughter

10.04.1986

Salesgirl

08

T.Jeyasinthan

Son

03.11.1988

??????

 

Untold Tragedies #3