Page 51 - Hemas_Piyawara_Book

CHAPTER 07

Hemas top management trudges the weary mile

t was not only the staff of the Hemas Group but also the top management who “There was much destruction,” relives Azira who was in Jaffna soon after the tsunami
Ifanned out across Sri Lanka after the tsunami, braving roads that hardly existed and and also the east. But she did see a difference in the attitude of the people in the north
making do with scrap meals, sometimes only a few biscuits in boutiques where the and those in the east.
cleanliness was questionable and lodgings that were far less than comfortable with
unimaginable so-called toilet facilities. She says that those in the north who had undergone severe hardship due to the conflict
handled the battering by the tsunami with stoic resignation. The lives lost and damage
Leaving their comfortable offices within Hemas House in Colombo, they ventured on a in the east were relatively more than in the north. There was also an underlying tension
sad journey to see for themselves the extent of suffering their brothers and sisters in the due to the presence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), though it was not
coastal areas were experiencing. While digging deep into their pockets to help all those palpable in areas under the control of the army.
who had survived the tsunami, they went into the welfare camps overcrowded with
men, women and children scarred by misery and living amidst deplorable conditions, The people in the north seemed to be more resilient, as if their mindset was that they
to chat to them and assure them that they were not alone. had other things to worry about. The scenes though were heartrending – their usually
tidy and organized humble homesteads bounded by fences of dried palmyrah leaves
Azira, the wife of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hemas Group, Husein were destroyed. The cultivations over which they had toiled had been swept away by
Esufally, headed north and east and Group Director, Murtaza Esufally, took to the east. the waves and the already difficult-to-cultivate arid land had been submerged by briny
seawater.
They went into the camps to see the plight of the people, especially the women
and children, who had in the blink of an eye been made homeless, with the torn “Nature had turned against them and flattened nature,” says Azira, pointing out that it
and shredded clothes they were wearing their only worldly possessions. Important was another thing they had to deal with in their already hard lives.
documents such as birth certificates, national identity cards, children’s immunization
cards which mothers usually safeguard like their own lives and much of their memories For her, the east was “just so sad”. The women, all housewives, who had been in a
through photographs had been lost, never to be recovered. culture of dependency on their husbands were left helpless. Their husbands, mainly
fishermen, were dead and in addition to bearing such a blow, they could not cope.
Yes, the top management got out of their comfort zone because they felt deep in their
hearts that all Sri Lankans had to rally round the beleaguered people and share their Some women had large families they had to fend for. Others had lost their families
loss, pain and trauma. to the ferocious waves. Their sad eyes sent her looks which she still remembers like

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