Part 1

***This article is about what I can remember and what I and my family experienced during the Indian army invasion.

Part 1

Indian Army Invasion {Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) invasion}

Sea Plane, Afro, B(P)ukkara, Sagadai, Helicopter (Bell helicopter, crocodile helicopter and so many other different type), Bomber, Supersonic, Kfir these are the names our kids learn before they started Learning A, B, C, D. In fact most of us could tell these fighter-planes names without even looking at them… We could identify what sort of plane or helicopter is coming with their sound.

I can still remember, when I was younger I was always so happy to see those planes from our windows or court yard and always wondered how do they fly and I wanted to fly on it one day. Time has changed then we became scared of it and every time we hear or saw the planes we had to run to the bunkers for survival.

First incident that I can still remember; when the Indian army arrived, there were heaps of planes and heaps of parachutes on the sky and we were all scared and my father put me with my siblings and mother in the bunker and he didn’t let us get out of the bunker for little while. After he found out it was Indian army he let us got out of the bunker and then we were all happy and we thought we don’t have to worry about going into the bunkers any more and then we were all celebrating about the Indian armies arrival.

Even though I was only around 9 years old or something at this time, I can still remember few days later or months after Indian army arrived in Jaffna my fathers’ friends (From Urumbirai) and my uncles (From Kantharoodai) arrived in our house, they said there is a fight between Tigers and Indian army and they can’t live at their place because there were heavy shelling, and they wanted to stay with us for few days or so.

One day my dad went to our rice paddy in Thanankilappu to make sure all the work’s done properly in our paddy field and if everything okay there. After an hour, Indian helicopter was rounding Chavakachcheri area and it was shooting (we called that helicopter “Crocodile heli” because its face looked like crocodile). We were all standing there in front of our house and watching this from our front house-hoods (front part of the house). Mum started crying out loud and all of us were scared. Thanankilappu is only one or two Kilo meters away from Chavakachcheri and we weren’t sure where they were firing exactly. Only thing we were sure about was that helicopter was shooting around Chavakachcheri area. After 30 minutes or so my dad arrived at home and his whole body was shaking and he said that there are burnt bodies everywhere in Chavakachchri – Market area and lots of civilians shot dead.

After Indian army arrived in Chavakachcheri we all moved to “Yettaalai” because of the shelling. Yettaalai is bit further down from Chavakachcheri so shells won’t reach that far. Only thing I can remember during this time was that we all run away from place to place very often because of those shelling and bombing. There were absolutely no schools, nobody went to work and only thing we did was running to place to place as refugees. I can still remember sometimes we even stayed in the bunker for the whole day and sometimes we go and stay in some temples because we believed that we will be safe in the temple.

One day my father took my mother and aunty back to our house to take some cloths and rice/ food and on the way back to Yettaalai they saw a shell coming on the sky and my aunty and mum jumped off from the bicycle to lye down on the ground, but unfortunately they jumped on a thorn bush and they were bleeding when they got to Yettaalai, they were laughing about what happened; because what they saw wasn’t a shell it was a firefly.

Every household had a suitcase/ sack full of their cloths and other emergency stuffs. These suitcases/sacks, we won’t touch them unless we had to run away from our house. It usually contains two pair of cloths, Soap, Shampoo, Torch light, Panadol, Bandages, Plasters, Match boxes, Candles, and biscuits/ dry food; and then my parents will have secret pockets on their cloths to carry money and jewelries since there were no bank facilities.

Finally Indian army captured whole Tamil area and there weren’t any shelling and we all returned to our home. Because we still had to make our living and survive. After we returned my brothers were captured few times by the Indian army under suspicion. Once my elder brother almost got shot, because one of our aunty was sick and he heard the news and he was running from our house to their house and Indian armies were hiding in the bush and they rounded up my brother and caught him and took him to their camp. My parents went and talked to those armies nothing happened and they wouldn’t let my brother go, then my dad went and saw the army commander and he proved to them that my brother is a student then they let my brother go, even then my brother was arrested few more times (it is very common for any Tamil boys/ girls to get arrested under suspicion).

All Tamils’ homes were searched and inspected regularly. Something will disappear (Stolen) from at least one of Tamil’s house in our area every time army came for inspection. Where there a mother and her daughter live in the house, they will ask their neighbor to come and stay with them because there were few rapes by the armies. So people were scared and don’t like to leave any female(s) inside the house or alone without anyone else’s company.

At this time I was just a little kid, who doesn’t know much except my personal experiences and studies. I was rehearsing for a drama called “Ilan Kumanan” for “Vijaya Thasami”,  for the Goddes festival. It is celebrated for 9 days and known as "Navarathri" my second elder brother ran away and joined Tigers and he ran away with few of our cousins and his friends.

As my mum is a blood-pressure patient, she became sick and she wouldn’t take any medication until she sees my brother. She doesn’t want to be treated until she sees my brother. She became very sick and she couldn’t be able to talk, her whole body was frozen like she was paralyzed. We were all scared and that was the first time I saw my father crying. Somehow my elder brother met some Tiger commander and finally my brother returned home after 18 days.

After he returned, my father didn’t want to keep him in our home or homeland any more because if the army finds out that he joined tiger and came back they will come and get my brother, so my father kept my brother at his friends and relatives places for few days and he finally send him to UK (when he was only 15 years old) in February 1989.

Most of the teenagers and all other kids that I knew joined Tigers at this time (especially after Thileepans’ fasting unto death people started joining Tigers heavily), and it became harder and harder for any teenagers or youths to live in peace. So my father send my elder brother to UK (He was 18 years old) in September 1989.

My parents sacrificed a lot already for us, but to send my brothers away they sold few of their traditional lands (lands passed by generation to generation) and half of their paddy field. I wouldn't say it was only my parents did this sort of sacrifices, there are almost in every Tamil family they have at least one person in overseas, they send away their kids overseas with the hope that at least their children will survive and if they survive they will help the family get away from all these horror. That’s why you can see lots of Tamil people who came to overseas as refugees, they work hard, study hard and they don’t even worry about what sort of job they do.

I have a perfect example: I knew this man in Melbourne; I called him Ganesh Uncle. He used to be a principal at this school in Jaffna and after he came to Melbourne he did cleaning and a factory work… He sponsored his wife and his two kids couple of years ago. There are lots of people like him. Unfortunately Ganesh uncle is passed away few months ago because of cancer. His wife, she used to be a Science and Math teacher in Jaffna, now she is doing a cleaning job and supporting her family. When they arrived in Melbourne they were 40+ years old and they couldn’t be able to get any jobs in their field and also the lack of English was another reason (They can speak, write and understand English, but remember English is only their second language).

Tamil youth who has grown up in overseas, who’s calling people ‘FOB’ think about what you are doing/saying? Yes they might be Fresh Off the Boat but what would you do if you were in their situation? You wouldn’t like if someone from another community calls you a curry. Calling someone a FOB is same as you making any racial comments or discriminating someone. So may be you can think about it!!!