Chronicler of broken dreams

For most people, childhood is filled with memories of warmth, play, and a sense of home. But for 24-year-old K. Saranraj, one memory stands out—returning from school to find his house in Kodambakkam reduced to rubble.

- PRAVEENA SA @Chennai

"I was in Class 2. It was March 2007, just before our exams. My father picked up my sister and me from school, and when we got back, our home was already gone. I was too little to understand what was happening, but sorrow filled my eyes and throat," he recalls.

His family, like many others, was evicted for a bridge that never was constructed. They were moved to a tenement in Semmenchery, far from school, work, and the life they knew.

"We had a comfortable house with everything within reach," he says. "It had two bedrooms—one for our grandparents and one for us. But the new place provided by TNUHDB was only 150 sq ft. Cramped and lonely."