Today the miracle baby is something of a celebrity as he approaches his first birthday, his survival a symbol of the will to live on the remote islands where thousands perished.

"It was in that hole that I chose Tsunami as his name," said his mother Namita Roy.

"We wanted him to be as mighty as the waves," the 24-year-old told AFP by telephone from Hut Bay, 60 kilometres (37 kilometres) from the Andamanese capital Port Blair.

"At home we call him Sagar (Sea) but he jumps up and responds happily when we call him 'Tsunami'," said Roy.

She had run before the waves as fast as her feet could carry her in the ninth-month of pregnancy before collapsing.

A naval team rescued Roy and delivered the child on the spot.

The boy weighed just four pounds (1.8 kilos) at birth and is still weak and trying to build up the strength of a normal robust infant

"Tsunami is still thin from the days of neglect he suffered in the refugee camps at Port Blair, but he is full of beans," said the mother. "He's turning into a little devil."

Roy, who does odd jobs to supplement her husband's wages of 2,600 rupees (60 dollars) per month, would very much like to celebrate Tsunami's first birthday in grand style.

"But we have no money for such celebrations," said her husband Laxminarayan, a worker in the forest department on crocodile-infested Hut Bay, on Little Andaman island.

"No relief or compensation has come our way despite the fact our home, my van and our live's savings were washed away in the tsunami."

A total of 1,899 people died on the Andaman and Nicobar islands and 5,500 others remain officially listed as missing after waves as high as 70 feetmetres) struck.

A well-off trader from Port Blair has already given Tsunami a first birthday gift -- a motorised rickshaw which Laxaminarayan now drives to ferry commercial cargo after work to pick up extra money.

"God's blessing is with Tsunami and it is He who will take care of this boy," the father said from Hut Bay over a mobile phone borrowed from administrative council official Babul Sarkar.

"We can already see the signs that this child is special. He is the most popular person on this island and he is showered with gifts wherever he goes with his parents," said Sarkar.

Police, doctors and social workers are frequent visitors to the Roy family on Hut Bay's Nanjappa Nagar residential enclave.

The child, according to Sarkar, has perhaps India's shortest mailing address, even simpler than that of President Abdul Kalam's 1, Raisina Hill, New Delhi.

"Just write 'Tsunami, Hut Bay' and the letter will reach his parents without fail," the official said.

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