They were soon going to light 100,000 traditional lamps at the Bhadrakali temple but something impromptu took place in between which turned out to be a narrow escape later.
The mother and daughter duo went on to climb Dharahara, a historic building in the Capital. As they were ascending to the fifth floor from fourth, at once the building started shaking. The shaking was due to a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that later collapsed the building, claiming many lives and injuring many more.
Surprisingly, Maiya Budhathoki and her both daughters survived. Recalling that horrific day, Maiya shared, "I was covered by the rubble and so were my daughters. We were immediately rescued and taken to the Bir Hospital which was already overwhelmed by the quake- hit people."
Everywhere the bodies of these fortunate survivors were either bruised or covered with dust and blood. Initially, Maiya was worried about the whereabouts of her daughters but as soon as she found her injured daughters in another corner of the room, the 41-year-old mother heaved a sigh of relief.
Maiya's head has sustained injury in the back whereas the banker daughter Khusbu's waist has been hurt badly.
The Chartered Accountancy student, Preeti is also in the support of 'Chest Tube' as arib in her chest has broken. They are now receiving treatment at Civil Service Hospital at Min Bhawan.
On the contrary to the saying- 'Bad news travels fast', it took father Chuda Bahadur Budhathoki, four good hours to know about the accident, thanks to his daughter's friend, Roshan Shrestha.
Chuda Bahadur's heart initially sank to see his spouse and daughters bed-ridden buthe is happy at least the accident did not take them away. Maiya also exudes happiness for being alive.
Her worst fear concerns the recovery of her daughters' health; however, Preeti expressed her concern for her upcoming exam of the CA second year.
"As the exam is at hand, I was being a homebody lately and preparing for the exam," continued Preeti, "I joined my family for errand that day as it was a holiday."
"But fate had it that we fell off along with the Dharahara," bemoaned Preeti. She appeals with the authority concerned, from the hospital bed, to postpone the exam a month later given the scale of the disaster and its repercussions. RSS
Related story
The Dharahara Debate
