Where were you when the Big One struck? I think that’s the question everyone has been asking. I was driving along Thapthali. A friend of mine was in the restroom. Another friend was parking his car beside his neighbor’s wall.
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It felt like my vehicle was surfing some kind of a wave. A friend of mine ran out of the restroom without finishing his business. Another friend’s vehicle was damaged by the crumbling wall. All of us were lucky to be alive.
All my immediate family members are safe. My dogs are safe. My house has not been damaged except the water tank outside. But thousands were not so lucky and we offer our prayers and condolences to their families.
I got back home and found my neighbors in the middle of the street. They all looked scared. Who wouldn’t be when such catastrophe occurs? Many sought open ground to camp and spend the evening. Many slept on the open street. No one stayed home that night.
I was fortunate to spend the night on open ground with my family. We got together and cooked dal, bhat and aloo for more than 40 people. Even our neighbors who were not on speaking terms were hugging and helping one another out.
The earthquake, in some ways, had brought us all together. The local cycle repairman was sharing the tent with the richest guy in the neighborhood. Our neighborhood ‘Holy’ Mata who used to conduct monthly pujas at her home was sharing food with a Christian lady. Nobody complained about the food and the shelter. We all did our best to make the person next to us comfortable. We were the fortunate lot.
That evening, I received a call from my cousin. His brother had come to Kathmandu on Saturday morning with his family. They were staying at his in-laws rented apartment in Kapan. The house had collapsed and was reduced to rubble. My cousin’s wife and son were pulled out in a few hours. They were taken to Om Hospital. His daughter was pulled out by others and sent to KMC Hospital. My cousin died and his dead body was at the Om Hospital.
The aftershocks on Sunday scared us all again. On Monday I went to Om Hospital with my relatives. We identified my cousin’s body and went to the police station in Gaushala to get permission to release the body. We searched for carpenters to make a coffin. We inquired about ambulances willing to take the body to Nawalparasi. The carpenter charged five thousand and the ambulance driver asked for twenty. It was not the time to negotiate. We gave in to their demands.
My cousin’s family survived with minor injuries. They were lucky to be alive but we were sad that their father who was the rock of the family was gone.
My cousin had migrated to India more than two decades ago. He had last been in Kathmandu before he left for India for better opportunities. He was happily settled and working for a government agency there. He had plans to take his family to Dharahara later that afternoon. My cousin’s body was cremated on Tuesday.
Like everyone else in the valley, I too received hundreds of calls from loved ones. We were all happy that we were safe and had enough stock of food and water. And while we also have our own grief to deal with, it’s saddening to hear and read about news reports about folks suffering in the outskirts of the valley.
Many young people and youth clubs and social organizations are now working to reach out to the folks in the neighboring villages in the valley. They are buying food and medical supplies and delivering it to the earthquake victims while our government is busy stocking up relief materials provided by foreign countries and not distributing it. Instead of encouraging us to help out and coordinating our efforts to reach as much people as possible, our government is silent.
Our government should have done its homework. The Big One was long overdue. Our grandparents experienced the big one in 1934. We now have our own stories of 2015. We should now ready our kids and the next generation for the next one. We need to make sure that our kids and their kids will be more prepared than we were.
Let us now hope that folks in other districts will get relief materials soon. Time is already running out for those who are still under the rubble. I think it’s already too late to carry out rescue works now. We can only hope for the best. We are all united in our efforts to reach out to those in great need at the moment except for our government and our politicians who neither understand the urgency to help the victims nor show any sympathy for those families who have lost their loved ones. But to blame the government is pointless and it’s time we take the matter into our own hands.
kalumaila99@gmail.com
