Tuesday, January 4 2005 11:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Port Blair: They had been almost swallowed by the killer waves on the Boxing Day and thanked God for being alive the next morning.

Yet in their core of heart a deep remorse lies, for failing to save the lives of some others, all little kids devoured by Tsunami.

Life will not be the same for these two residents of Car Nicobar and Malacca Islands in the Andaman and Nicobar, still ravaged by the unprecedented devastation on the fateful December 26 morning.

For the Indian Air Force (IAF) employee of Car Nicobar the image of the three and half year old little child, being drawn by the waves to the sea after the kid slipped from his arms, kept haunting him time and again.

The colleague's wife handed over the little child, of a colleague in the Air Force who was away on duty, to the employee when she spotted the gigantic column of water surging towards them.

Both the adults, the IAF man and his friend's wife, then ran for their lives and clambered up a tree with the wife holding another child, an eight-month old baby.

However as the two tried to reach the top of the tree both children fell in water and were lost forever, the disconsolate IAF personnel, not wishing to be named, said.

In a similar tale, the wife of a contract labourer in Malacca Island narrated how despite her best attempts a kid slipped from her arms as she was getting on the tree to escape from nature's fury.

"There were 25 of us trying to climb the tree. A number of kids gathered underneath pleading "aunty please save us". I also tired to hold on to a child. But I could not for long and he vanished under water. I will never forget the cry and wail for help," the woman said in a choked voice.