When Sriram Vilayanoor woke up the morning of Dec. 26 and checked the online version of India's national newspaper, The Hindu, the news splashed across the Web site was nothing Vilayanoor could have prepared himself to see.
At that point the reports coming out of India said an earthquake had rocked the region, leaving 1,000 people dead and many more homeless.
But as the day went on and the death toll steadily increased, Vilayanoor and the rest of the world learned India, along with over a dozen other countries, had also been struck by a deadly tsunami that would claim almost 300,000 lives. Within India, Vilayanoor's home state of Tamil Nadu was hit the hardest.
Stunned by the news, Vilayanoor rushed to call his family, which lives in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. Luckily, his family was unharmed, and although his wife's family lives 200 yards from the beach, their home was left untouched.
A friend of his, however, who was on the beach when the lethal waves hit, remains missing.
"There are no words to express how I felt upon hearing about this," said Vilayanoor, a project engineer with UB's Center for Industrial Effectiveness and a 2002 UB graduate. "My initial reaction was 'Are my friends and family okay?' I saw people that I identify myself with lose everything. This is the first time I've ever seen something of this magnitude. It's a shocking experience."
UB officials said last week that no UB students or faculty members were directly affected by the tsunami, but that statistic doesn't account for those with ties to the region who were still deeply hit by the tragedy.
"As soon as my parents heard about it, they called my family because my aunt and grandmother are still over there," said Jennifer Koshy, a sophomore biology major and first-generation Indian American. "It was actually kind of hard to get in touch with them since so many people were calling to make sure their family was okay.
"It was weird hearing about the tsunami hitting India since I visited there last June," she added. "But it just makes me want my relatives to come here, even though I know they never would."
Koshy said that she was extremely grateful that her family and friends were unaffected by the tsunami.
"I don't know how I would react if I had to deal with that," she said. "I thank God I didn't have to find out that someone I care about was hurt."
Vetsouvanh Thongrivong, a freshman chemistry major, was also initially shocked when he learned of the tsunami.
"My first question was 'What countries did it hit?' My parents are from Laos, which fortunately didn't get hit, but I was shocked just to know that something like that happened," he said.
Thongrivong said a natural disaster like a tsunami is especially devastating because everything gets simply washed away.
"My parents have lived in parts of the countries that got hit, and they're basically third world countries," he said. "These people lost everything and it's going to be extremely difficult and take forever for them to rebuild."
Following his initial shock, Vilayanooor channeled his emotions into the relief effort.
"I definitely drew energy from that shock and channeled it into my drive to make a difference," said Vilayanoor, who has collected close to $2,000 for the tsunami relief fund so far. "I felt that I had two choices: to sit back and complain or to do what I can to help. I decided to do something about it, because you have to do something if you want to make a difference."
Vilayanoor said although he is not related to any of the people that died as a result of the tsunami, the deaths hit close to home - another fact that aided in his decision to help.
"I'm not related to any of the deceased, but they're my family in a sense. I'm one of them. You may not have a lot of people that you know who were directly affected, but it's easy to identify yourself with them," said Vilayanoor. "And it's not even a case of nationality because in the end, we're all just citizens of the world."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
