In a moment of absent-mindedness, Dipak Jain, dean of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, made the decision that would save his and his family’s life.

On Sunday, Dec. 26, the day that a tsunami in the Indian Ocean claimed more than 150,000 victims in 11 different nations, Jain was vacationing in Thailand at the beachfront Sheraton Hotel on the island of Phuket. Jain had come to Thailand to teach at the Sasin Graduate School of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok as a part of Northwestern’s international alliance program. He and his family had traveled to Phuket for the weekend to relax by the ocean.

At 8 a.m. Jain felt his hotel room shaking, but went on with his day as normal because afterward “everything seemed fine.”

At 9:40, eating breakfast by an enormous lagoon that divided his hotel from the beach, Jain received a call from a friend who had promised to take the family on a tour of the island. He was going to be a half-hour late.

Jain suggested to his wife that they could check out the beach with the extra time they had.

But Jain and his wife stayed at breakfast a while longer to let their kids finish their meals. During that time, Jain forgot about the beach, and when breakfast was done, he told his wife that they should head back to their room.

Halfway there, they were stopped in their tracks.

“I was taken by surprise,” Jain said. “We saw a huge wave of water coming towards us.” But the family was safe as the immense, crashing wave, carrying the remains of boats and chaise lounges from the beach, sank before their eyes into the lagoon, never reaching the hotel or its guests.

“When the water was going into the lagoon, it looked like Niagara Falls, the water was falling with such intensity,” Jain said.

Somehow, though, the event seemed unremarkable.

“We didn’t pay much attention. We thought it was a very light thing,” Jain said.

Minutes later, the Jains piled into their friend’s car and were on their way to another beach. Soon they received a call telling them to stop and head back inland.

Back in their room, the Jains watched the breaking news reports about the tragedy that had unfolded around them.

“That’s when we realized that what we saw in the morning was very serious,” Jain said.

Describing how his family handled the event, Jain said, “To be honest, my children were very disappointed. My son tells me, ‘Daddy, you told me that Phuket was all about beaches, and we didn’t get to see any beaches.’

“He said, ‘We have to come back again.’

“I said, ‘Yes, we can come back again.'”

Reach Jordan Weissmann at [email protected].