Nagapattinam : The sun rises early in Akkarapetai's temporary shelters. And so does twelve-year-old Vetrichelvam. Tidying his hair, he gulps down his food and sets out on the three km walk to his school.

As his mother looks on, she is amazed at how happy he is. For Vetrichelvam had stopped going out of the house after he witnessed his three-year-old sister being sucked into a watery death last year.

"I was very scared in the beginning. Then some volunteers told me these stories of how the sea is our friend and we should not be scared of it. I loved the stories. And I started coming to school just to hear them," says Vetrichelvam.

A story about a girl to whom the sea gives everything, a story about a boy who lost everything in the tsunami - Vetrichelvam along with his other classmates can recite these tales by heart.

The brainchild of an NGO called Suyam, along with Mumbai-based NGO Akanksha, the books containing the stories have been published both in Tamil and English. Children are the central characters and simple illustrations and easy to grasp tales make it easier for children to relate to these stories.

The idea of the story-telling sessions was to erase the fear that had entrenched itself in the hearts of these young ones after the tsunami hit the shoreline.

The District Collector of Nagapattinam, J Radhakishnan says, the idea of the narratives was conceived for Akkaraipetai but after the schools were successful in bringing about a positive change in the attitude of the children, the idea was introduced in all the schools of Nagapattinam.

"The idea of the stories is to distract the students into getting back to their books and education," says George Abraham Lincoln, a teacher in Nagapattinam.

And the idea has worked. Vetrichelv`am says he still misses his little sister but is no longer scared of the sea. When a time of fear is captured in a story, the little boy finds himself growing far bigger than the deadly wave.