By Dana Williams
While vacationing in his hometown of Port Blair, India, Nandi said, he awoke one morning to discover that the town was engulfed by floodwaters. He said that the tsunami - which was caused by an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean and affected coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia - destroyed most of the islands surrounding the town. Port Blair is the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a territory of India.
As the third anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Nandi said, it is important to remember the toll the tsunami took on countless families and on many nations' infrastructure. The Old Westbury resident, who specializes in pain management, is continuing to help tsunami victims by helping to rebuild the area's economy.
Nandi witnessed firsthand the catastrophic effects the tsunami had on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie in the Andaman Sea between India and Thailand. "I did whatever I could to help the people in the islands by working with the [territory's] one member of India's Parliament to provide medicine and other medical assistance to the people there," Nandi explained, adding that he was grateful to have survived the disaster. "The tsunami caused the water pipes to break, and that caused waterborne infectious diseases to spread in the islands, so I tried to do what I could to help."
The tidal wave destroyed many factories in the islands, Nandi said, which decimated the area's lumber and fishing industries.
"Right now, the islands have a lot of unemployment, whereas the rest of India has prospered in the last five years ... and I'm working with the one member of Parliament to put up an outsourcing call center in the area," Nandi said. "The center is going to give jobs to a lot of people, because the tsunami also destroyed the beaches, and that caused tourism to decline. There's a lot of employment in the islands."
The effort to give back to his homeland, Nandi said, helped make him the person he is today. As a child in the islands, he grew up in poverty, but he was determined not to let that keep him from achieving his goals.
Nandi studied medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, graduating in 1981. He later moved to the U.S. as a psychiatry resident at the University of Missouri, and eventually completed his neurological research studies at Columbia University.
Having lived on Long Island for more than 20 years, Nandi said that the opportunities in America have enabled him to give back to his community. He joined Triboro Health Care Management in 1995 to help bring health care to those in need in New York City. For nearly 20 years he has been involved as well with Street Children International, a non-profit organization based in Great Neck that helps provide food and schooling to children in the destitute areas of Calcutta, India.
Nandi is now hoping to build the New York Kali Mandir Temple and Community Center's presence in Baldwin. The temple, which currently has more than 1,000 members, has been a place for residents of the North and South Shores to meet, learn and work together, he said. "We have people from all religions and faiths coming in to visit the temple, which makes it very exciting and interesting," Nandi said.
Since the temple's opening in August 2005, he said, the members have aimed to make it "a center of peace in the Baldwin area." Temple officials are currently planning a fund-raiser in order to build a new auditorium in the temple.
"We are so happy to have the temple in Baldwin, and it's also a center for tolerance and learning for the next generation of kids," Nandi said. "The community members, business owners and neighbors in Baldwin have all been supportive of the temple, and we hope to continue the temple's success here in Baldwin."
Comments about this story? Dwilliams@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
