Monday, November 28, 2005
Must Read: The Day the Sea Came
It's hard to believe, but it's almost a year since the devastating Boxing Day Tsunami that stunned every last one of us in the sheer scale of its destruction. While most of us watched (on TV) the destruction unfold in India, Thailand and Sri Lanka, noone really knew the magnitude of what happened in Banda Aceh, where two-thirds of the deaths occurred. There were no videos shot by tourists, no live reportage, so we had to pretty much imagine the horrors that were visited upon the people of Aceh. Until now.
Barry Bearak does a fantastic job of recreating the day the sea came and destroyed everything that stood in its path in Banda Aceh in this remarkable essay in the NYT magazine. Told through the eyes of six survivors in three stages (before, during and after the waves hit), this un-putdownable essay documents the devastation in painstaking detail. Yes, it's a very long essay and will take up a good chunk of your time, but trust me, this is feature writing at its absolute best. So, make sure you read it before it goes behind the Times' subscription wall.
Barry Bearak does a fantastic job of recreating the day the sea came and destroyed everything that stood in its path in Banda Aceh in this remarkable essay in the NYT magazine. Told through the eyes of six survivors in three stages (before, during and after the waves hit), this un-putdownable essay documents the devastation in painstaking detail. Yes, it's a very long essay and will take up a good chunk of your time, but trust me, this is feature writing at its absolute best. So, make sure you read it before it goes behind the Times' subscription wall.
