Ten-year-old Manas, who lost his parents in a house collapse during the cyclone, was brought to the SOS Village on November 12. The trauma of his parents' death had made him stubborn. But by November 27, a visit to the Village showed Manas humming a nursery rhyme and climbing up and down a ladder.

Rashmita and Manas are just two of the nearly three million children orphaned or affected by the super cyclone. With family support gone and the trauma of the devastation lingering in their minds, there is every possibility that these tiny lives will be left behind in the race.

Keeping this in mind, SOS Children's Village of India has come forward to rehabilitate these children in a homely atmosphere attheir Children's Village in Khandagiri, about 6 km from Bhubaneswar. Through special teams deputed in the cyclone-affected areas, SOS has brought 86 worst-affected children to the Village for psychological treatment and special care. While, 53 children, whose family members are still alive, have been registered for temporary care for three months, 33 orphans have been kept at the Village for permanent care.

Village director SK Kar said attempts are being made to make these children normal through a daily routine comprising morning prayers, games and studies at the kindergarten school. This apart, SOS teams are also taking steps to stop children in cyclone-affected Jagatsinghpur district from begging on the roadside.

Though most of the children have adjusted to the Village environment and to the other 167 children of the Village, the fear of the deadly tidal wave and the scenes of devastation still haunt them.

``After special care, Rashmita has adjusted to the new atmosphere, but late at night shesuddenly wakes up and cries for her mother,'' says her nurse.For Manas, the sharp pain of his parents' loss may have dulled into an ache, but it remains. When asked to recall the night of the deadly cyclone, his face turns pale and he almost breaks down.

``I was sleeping with my younger sister, when my father woke us up and carried us to a double-storey building. Promising to take us home after the winds calm down, he left, but did not return,'' says Manas in a choked voice.Apart from orphaned children, children whose parents have not been identified in the list of the dead, have been brought to the Village. All these children wants meet their family.

But this hope seems a distant dream with neither the State Government nor any voluntary organisation preparing any comprehensive data on the number of missing.

Kar said till the parents are traced and till the children become normal, SOS will extend its services to them.