On a windy afternoon, two men appear to be floating cross-legged in the middle of rough seas off the coast of the fishing hamlet of Kallar in Nagappattinam. A closer look reveals them to be fisherman Kumurasan and one of his relatives on a flimsy makeshift raft about half a kilometre out to sea.
Kumurasan was the proud owner of a launch worth 1.5 million rupees ($268,000), before the tsunami damaged it beyond repair, along with his family home. In the good times, he would take the boat out to sea for days and return with a catch worth tens of thousands of rupees.
Now, overwhelmed by the call of the sea and tired of listless days at his temporary shelter, Kumurasan has decided that, boat or no boat, he is going fishing and his neighbours will share his catch. He has made his new vessel out of three logs. Kumurasan's determination to reclaim his life is indicative of the spirit pervading one of the worst-affected communities in Tamil Nadu, the state hardest hit when the tsunami swamped the coast.
While the emotional scars caused by the loss of loved ones may take a lifetime to heal, despair and anger over the tragedy have virtually disappeared, replaced by a can-do spirit to get on with life and rebuild shattered homes, boats and livelihoods.
Trawler worker Vijaya was eager to get back to work as he put out to sea for the first time since the waves took his home, his mother and sister-in-law. The 25-year-old had feared and cursed the ocean after the tragedy, but now he cannot wait to venture out into the Bay of Bengal.
'I love fishing,' he said as he boarded a fibreglass boat donated by an Italian foundation. 'It just makes me so joyful to be out in the open sea ... the sea is our life and it will always be our life.'