And now it was the mother earth that shook the land of Nepal apart from neighboring countries India and Tibet, where few tremors were felt. Everybody cursed earthquake for killing thousands of people but I believe it's our weak physical infrastructure and improper urbanization which are responsible for a heavy loss of human lives and properties.
It felt like a normal Saturday morning. Just the other day, I had such a wonderful time with my friends at Kumaripati Fair on Friday. So I was little tired on Saturday and feeling lazy. But this Saturday I didn't have any plans and was doing some domestic chores at home like washing clothes, etc.
I and my mother were washing clothes on the terrace. While washing, my mother looked up into the sky and told me that we should finish washing quickly as it would rain heavily later in the day. With the clouds dotting everywhere, the day seemed so boring. Looking up into the sky, I moved my hands faster. At 11:30 am, we finished up washing and I came down to work on laptop in my room whereas my mother went into the kitchen to take her meal.
Happy Earth Day!
When she finished her meal, she boiled tea and went up to the terrace to check the soaked clothes. While I was working on laptop, I turned on TV, too. As it struck 11:56 am, suddenly the light went off. "Damn this light, it's always uncertain!" I reacted. By the time, suddenly the whole house started shaking. The window in front of me started to move left and right and all other things started to fall down. I had experienced earthquake earlier also but this time it shook a lot. Then I shouted, "Mother, it's an earthquake, a massive earthquake".
I heard my mother shouting from the terrace, "Yes, yes it's earthquake, earthquake". By the time all other neighbors started shouting which I could hear but more louder was the sound of earthquake that rocked my house, cracked and destroyed. My poor house made of mud, woods and cement could not withstand that jolt. I was not able to even stand up properly for bed and walk to door while my mother went into the kitchen and turned off the cooking gas. I really appreciated my mother for that job as it prevented the disaster from spreading further.
She came down to my room. I threw laptop on the bed and managed to stand up and I suddenly grabbed my bag. Then I went out of my room and ran after my mother, reeling under Hamletian dilemma whether to go out or stay inside. Then my mother told me to go outside. We trio ran downstairs but by that time the mud and bricks began to fall over us. Meanwhile, the upper part of the terrace started to crumble down.
On the ground floor, we tried to open the main gate to escape outside but it was jammed. We could not open it, no matter how much physical effort we applied. Then we gave up. And, we three crouched on to the ground, holding each other, trembling.
I thought we three were going to be buried under the house. I thought this was the end. Then, my mother started to press on the ground with her thumb saying, "gata gata", meaning enough mother earth, enough mother earth in Newari. I saw her and copied doing so.
Call it a miracle or science, the door opened suddenly and my brother exclaimed in delight, "It's open! it's open!" And we all ran outside covering our heads. Panicked, we grabbed each other, preparing ourselves for more jolts. Hoping against hope, we all waited in fear but the tremors went on and on.
I heard people crying for help. They said, "Most of the temples at Mangal Bazaar have been collapsed and scores buried beneath it". Then some people went to their rescue while others stayed there, waiting for the quake to cease. Alas! Mother earth did not seem to be in the mood to stop.
And my father scurried out of the shop where he was at the time of the earthquake. All items at the shop were damanged and he saw many wounded people and collapsed houses on the way to home. He thought that we all three had been buried by the house.
While I was loitering by the alley, the images of my warm bed, kitchen and cupboards came flooding into my memory, making me feel nostalgic of them.
We stayed outside and slept on the road under the sky. We were hungry and thirsty. I did not know how one of my neighbors managed to go to the kitchen and cook some noodles and tea for all of us. The night fell and I was feeling secure and relaxed as we were under a tent. And as we were about to fall asleep, the ground shook again but it did not worry us much.
In the subsequent days, we stayed on the compound of a relative where they provided us with some food, water and blankets. I am really grateful to those people who helped us at the time of crisis. Though the earthquake was devastating, it taught us to come closer, stay together, and help each other. We have also experienced the warmth of brotherhood, mankind and humanity. Many other countries have come to help, rescued victims and sent many relief materials.
In a nutshell, the mother earth, I believe, wanted a new Nepal. So, she has brought down old infrastructures, the newly built poor infrastructure and unmanaged urbanization to alert people that they should build stronger infrastructures for their coming generation.
