Amidst our joyous celebrations with our families, friends and love ones during this holiday season, I call upon all Soulcasters to take a pause and observe a minute’s silence for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, which took away over 200,000 lives, wiped off entire coastal communities and devastated homelands across South and South East Asia, including parts of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The catastrophe, which was triggered by undersea earthquake and measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, is one of the deadliest disaster in modern history .  The disaster is known as Boxing Day Tsunami as it occurred on Boxing Day, Dec 26 2004, when many tourists were having their holiday in seaside resorts in the coastal areas affected.  Coincidentally, the tsunami occurred exactly one year after the 2003 earthquake that devastated the southern Iranian city of Bam.