In a two-storey apartment block in South Chennai’s Mylapore area, four senior citizens on Thursday were clinging on to a single line of communication with the outside world: a working telephone. Like lakhs of others, Lata Eswaran and her husband, along with her sister Jaya Raman and her spouse who live downstairs, have been thrown off-balance by the unprecedented rains in Chennai.
And just like so many others in this southern city, they have no immediate relatives to rely on for help because their children live abroad.
A study released earlier this year by the Centre for Development Studies suggested that one of every 20 families in the state has a member working abroad. That may be a reason that, as one report suggests, 8% of the city’s population comprises senior citizens (60 years and older) ‒ higher than in any Indian metro except for Kolkata. The 2001 census puts Tamil Nadu fourth in terms of states with large elderly populations (8.8% of the total population), behind Punjab, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, but much above the national average of 7.4%.
Bad networks
As the rains and flooding have brought the city to a juddering halt, phone and internet networks have frayed, giving people living around the world anxiety attacks about the well-being of their parents.
The Eswarans have two children who live in the US. The Ramans, both in their eighties, have one daughter in America. “My sister and her children are very attached to each other and speak to each other all the time. But now all the lines are down,” said Jaya Raman, 80, over the only working telephone line.
Their mobile network hasn't functioned since the morning, a special phone service for international calls has gone dead, and email is an unimaginable luxury. “It is simply not possible to be in touch,” said Raman. Her husband pointed out that the television wasn’t working either, making access to information all the more difficult.
“My children didn’t want me to stay alone in Chennai to begin with,” said Hamsa Chandrasekaran, 73, whose son lives in San Francisco and daughter in Houston. “They are worried, but one landline is working so they have been able to call me.”
Not much else is working, however. There is no electricity, Skype is out, and Chandrasekaran is managing alone at home on candlelight, with limited charge on her cell phone.
Far away in Australia, Aajwanthi Baradwaj, 27, was able to confirm through a brief phone call on Thursday morning that her parents were okay, but she is aware that there is irregular power supply. “There is no point in panicking,” she said, speaking from Melbourne, where she lives with her husband. “Either there isn’t cell phone signal or I’ll be wasting their battery if I keep calling.” Baradwaj is also keeping track of the situation via social media and allaying the concerns of family friends calling to ask about her parents.
But social media has come to the rescue of many people separated by distances and time zones.
Joe Doraiswamy, 28, who works in Germany, is on a family Whatsapp group where information is being shared with members scattered across different cities. Doraiswamy said that when he first woke up on Wednesday and heard the news of the rains in Chennai, among the first things he saw on Facebook were pictures his mother had posted of the flooding.
Jammed lines
“By the time I was climbing out of bed, she had turned her phone off to conserve her battery and couldn't be reached,” he said, via email. “The landlines were jammed and she did not have any electricity. So I didn't hear from her till around 7 pm [Chennai time] when she briefly surfaced to say that all was well.” However, he still hasn’t managed to speak to her by phone because of the intermittent connectivity over the past 48 hours.
Some families have carefully organised information channels for the crisis.
Dr Satyabhama Chandrasekaran, 61, and her husband had to wade out of their home on Wednesday and take refuge at a friend’s place. Through a brief window of time, she managed to contact her son in Los Angeles to say they were fine, as were her husband’s sisters, who also live in Chennai. Her son then passed on this information to all her nieces and nephews in the US, who had been trying to contact their parents. Her daughter-in-law has also been keeping abreast of the situation online and helping put her in touch with relief groups in the area.
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And just like so many others in this southern city, they have no immediate relatives to rely on for help because their children live abroad.
A study released earlier this year by the Centre for Development Studies suggested that one of every 20 families in the state has a member working abroad. That may be a reason that, as one report suggests, 8% of the city’s population comprises senior citizens (60 years and older) ‒ higher than in any Indian metro except for Kolkata. The 2001 census puts Tamil Nadu fourth in terms of states with large elderly populations (8.8% of the total population), behind Punjab, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, but much above the national average of 7.4%.
Bad networks
As the rains and flooding have brought the city to a juddering halt, phone and internet networks have frayed, giving people living around the world anxiety attacks about the well-being of their parents.
The Eswarans have two children who live in the US. The Ramans, both in their eighties, have one daughter in America. “My sister and her children are very attached to each other and speak to each other all the time. But now all the lines are down,” said Jaya Raman, 80, over the only working telephone line.
Their mobile network hasn't functioned since the morning, a special phone service for international calls has gone dead, and email is an unimaginable luxury. “It is simply not possible to be in touch,” said Raman. Her husband pointed out that the television wasn’t working either, making access to information all the more difficult.
“My children didn’t want me to stay alone in Chennai to begin with,” said Hamsa Chandrasekaran, 73, whose son lives in San Francisco and daughter in Houston. “They are worried, but one landline is working so they have been able to call me.”
Not much else is working, however. There is no electricity, Skype is out, and Chandrasekaran is managing alone at home on candlelight, with limited charge on her cell phone.
Far away in Australia, Aajwanthi Baradwaj, 27, was able to confirm through a brief phone call on Thursday morning that her parents were okay, but she is aware that there is irregular power supply. “There is no point in panicking,” she said, speaking from Melbourne, where she lives with her husband. “Either there isn’t cell phone signal or I’ll be wasting their battery if I keep calling.” Baradwaj is also keeping track of the situation via social media and allaying the concerns of family friends calling to ask about her parents.
But social media has come to the rescue of many people separated by distances and time zones.
Joe Doraiswamy, 28, who works in Germany, is on a family Whatsapp group where information is being shared with members scattered across different cities. Doraiswamy said that when he first woke up on Wednesday and heard the news of the rains in Chennai, among the first things he saw on Facebook were pictures his mother had posted of the flooding.
Jammed lines
“By the time I was climbing out of bed, she had turned her phone off to conserve her battery and couldn't be reached,” he said, via email. “The landlines were jammed and she did not have any electricity. So I didn't hear from her till around 7 pm [Chennai time] when she briefly surfaced to say that all was well.” However, he still hasn’t managed to speak to her by phone because of the intermittent connectivity over the past 48 hours.
Some families have carefully organised information channels for the crisis.
Dr Satyabhama Chandrasekaran, 61, and her husband had to wade out of their home on Wednesday and take refuge at a friend’s place. Through a brief window of time, she managed to contact her son in Los Angeles to say they were fine, as were her husband’s sisters, who also live in Chennai. Her son then passed on this information to all her nieces and nephews in the US, who had been trying to contact their parents. Her daughter-in-law has also been keeping abreast of the situation online and helping put her in touch with relief groups in the area.