Sinking feeling refuses to go away

CHENNAI:  Eight survivors of the ill-fated liner that sank off the Italy coast last Friday landed at the airport here on Thursday on their way to their homes. Warm hugs were exchanged and tears of joy shed as their families received them.The eight people were: Rajesh from Salem, Dinesh and Manoj Kumar from Mylapore, Kannan Prasad from Theni, Prasanna from Mahabalipuram, Ramkumar, the cook from Puducherry, Bhuvanesh Kumar from Alandur and Arjun Vaidyanathan. The survivors said they had to spend some days in churches and schools in an island after they were rescued before they were flown back to India via Dubai.Bhuvanesh Kumar, a guest relations officer at the cruise liner Costa Concordia, was a relieved man as he hugged his mother Vasanthi on arrival. “We suffered a lot. It is still difficult to come out of the incident. I hope the people who went missing are safe,” he said.Recalling the fateful day, Bhuvanesh, a hotel management graduate and an MBA, said the crew first heard that there was a technical fault with the vessel. “There was a lot of panic. We later heard that the ship had hit a rock and water was entering it. We had only a few lifeboats and had to manage with that. We were stuck in the sinking ship for two and a half hours. I tried to go back to my cabin for my documents but I was not allowed to go there. I have lost all of my documents — passport, educational certificates and everything else,” he said.