Watching Chennai from Cork County

In the ten years she spent in this South Indian city, IT professional Aine Edwards turned around the lives of many underprivileged children by introducing them to surfing and technology. She continues to nurture what she started by staying connected

Having eased into a settled existence at Ireland’s Cork County Island with a coastline nuzzled by the Atlantic, for nearly three years now, Aine Edwards’ circadian rhythm is set in stone, except when she wants it broken. A social environment she has built on another, vastly different coastline spurs her to invite that disruption. Remotely, she continues to live in Chennai and Mahabalipuram — her place of domicile and stomping ground, respectively, for a decade before she relocated to Cork County. Through social media — especially WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook — she watches over what she seeded and nurtured back on the Indian coastline. And this sometimes means being woken up early by the deep twang of a WhatsApp notification, followed by frenetic texting to get the right contact in Chennai to have a need in a fishing hamlet met.

How Aine breathed fresh meaning into the lives of children at the fishermen’s hamlets in Mahabalipuram through the empowering influence of a sport — surfing — is the stuff of legends. To dwell on it at length would be to over-elaborate the well-known. Aine was the launchpad for Kamali, now 15 years old. But behind Kamali are the unknown faces of youngsters that have benefited from Aine’s efforts, and are waiting to be benefitted. A kid in the fisherman’s colony might need a surfboard. Through contacts forged as a surfer herself and an IT consultant in Chennai, she ensures the surfboard reaches the child. Besides, there are education-based initiatives she took part in, in Chennai, that might have achieved critical mass, but still require a helpful push or two from her. To ensure a US dollar 500 scholarship reaches the children — primarily, students of Little Lamb School at Vijaylakshmi Nagar (Off Surapet Road) in Puthagaram — she makes sure they do not drop out at any point, the only criterion for the scholarship. Aine is working on another dream, bridging the gap between Ireland and the Chennai-Mahabalipuram coastline for these children by activating educational opportunities at least digitally using her contacts.

That begs the question: how did this get off the ground? This question usually does not go with the usual suspects, questions that pivot around Kamali and her efforts to reach surfboards as well as top-notch coaching to the children from fishermen hamlets in Mahabalipuram.

Before Chennai happened, back in Ireland, Aine Edwards was wrapped up in what everyone is till an unbearable ennui hits them. A steady IT job, a circle of close-knit friends, and weekends spent by an exquisite Irish coast, where waves meet the rocky shores in a soothing, predictable cadence. It was a life she had come to know intimately, a steady routine that felt secure but, at times, stifling. As she approached her mid-30s, the stifling became intense. She wanted to break out of the daily routine that had become as restrictive as prison bars. She knew in her bones that to be of any earthly use to anyone, she had to leave the familiar behind and sign up for the unknown.

At the fag end of 2002, a sports injury forcing her into a reflective pause, Aine found herself in deep conversation with her cousin Frank Beechinor, a social worker based in India. Frank’s stories about life in Chennai were vivid and filled with a sense of purpose. He spoke of the lively communities and the steep challenges faced by children growing up in India, many of whom lacked access to education and basic resources. For Aine, these stories sparked a quiet urgency, a feeling that her life’s purpose might lie far from the paths she knew. Almost impulsively, she decided to visit him, even pitching tent in Chennai for six months. And in 2011, she would shift to Chennai, lock, stock and barrel, having received an employment and business visa.

“I was ready for change,” she reflects. “But I had no idea I was about to step into a place that would change me completely.”

She has had her share — in fact, a lion’s share — of the befuddled newbie expat experiences. Setting foot on Chennai soil, she found her luggage missing, requiring her to subsist on the $50 the airline had doled out to her. Remember, it was not a world with digital wallets to bail you out of such situations.