Tsunami tragedy

The tsunami that wreaked havoc in different parts of South East Asia took its toll on Bombay’s Fouzdar family. The family was on a holiday at the Yala Safari Park on the south eastern tip of Sri Lanka when disaster struck on the morning of December 26, 2004 taking the lives of 45-year-old Kersi Fouzdar, his wife Ketayoun, 44, his mother Soonoo 75, and his sister Meher 50. Their 12-year-old son Anosh is still missing. Only the younger son Farzan, nine, was saved.

On the day of the calamity, Kersi had gone down for breakfast, Ketayoun and the two sons were in their room and the grandmother and aunt were in the adjacent interconnected room, Farzan had related the incident to his acquaintances. He recalled his mother cautioning the boys to beware of the approaching waves and soon there seemed to be a flood around him. His aunt’s body came floating in from the next room. He felt himself lifted by the water and then landing near a branch of a tree which he clung on to save his life. Apparently caught on another branch of the same tree was a bed which Farzan feared would endanger his safety too. Finally when the waves receded the scarred Farzan was among those rushed to a local hospital; his left femur bone was found fractured.

Kersi, working for Royal P&O Nedloyd as their regional financial controller — Middle East, South Asia and Africa, the office immediately sent a search team to locate the family. But by December 28, the family in Bombay was conveyed the sad tidings. The family then had to arrange to bring back the four bodies to Bombay and the injured Farzan who was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital. An acknow­ledgement in the Jam-e-Jamshed of Febru­ary 6, 2005 on behalf of Farzan, Ervad Faramroz, Roshan and Mehernosh Beh­ram­kamdin (Ketayoun’s parents and brother) thanks "the Parsi community of Sri Lanka, particularly Aban Pestonji, Aspi Dubash, Aspi Daruwalla and Zubin Elavia, the management and staff of P&O Nedloyd and of Godrej and Boyce and the Indian High Commission for extending selfless service and support during those turbulent days.”

An alumnus of Bombay’s St Mary’s School, ICSE, "Kersi was a very hard­working and excellent man; always trying to get Parsis a good job,” recalls Capt Jimmy Sarbh, chairman and managing director of P&O Ports, South Asia and Middle East Region. Quiet and soft-spoken Ketayoun who had studied at the J. B. Petit School was a homemaker whom neighbors considered very helpful. Soonoo was working with Sandoz until her retirement and Meher had joined the treasury department of Mahindra and Mahindra after many years with NOCIL.