April, 2015 Earthquake of Nepal: An immediate call from Motherland

It was around 11:50 am, 25th April, 2015 when all of sudden the peaceful ambiance of my MBA class was disturbed by a phone call from Australia that informed that a massive earthquake has hit Nepal. I doubted the veracity of the information , as social media pranks are very common these days. But the intensity of seriousness of my bench partner made me serious. And then the first thing that I remember was my parents back home who were old, alone and in small house surrounded by big buildings. Then i remembered my relatives, friends and who not !! Fear kicked me hard inside when we tried to contact our family back home but couldn't succeed. And it was confirmed that a real earthquake had hit Nepal.

Panicking began when in-spite of trying to contact with family back home turned futile. Everyone who had not been able to communicate with family had started to panic, trying to hide it though. Finally I could contact my brother in law, an officer in Nepal police, who was in remote area of Dolakha. However he himself was unknown about family members in Kathmandu, which increased my restlessness. Counselling friends that everything in Nepal was fine was a damn lies as earthquake had created a havoc. Finally, it was only in the evening that I got little relief when my friend's brother in Kathmandu helped me to communicate with my parents, who were all fine, including my immediate relatives.

Dharahara: a symbol of our hope, pride and confidence was shattered by the Earthquake

However after updating myself with news in Indian medias, social media sites, etc I realised that a dark period has begun in Nepal which would not only lead to thousands of casualties and immense loss of property but also push back the country years back. I could see the intensity of seriousness by my friend's, juniors and other friends from various countries, who were trying to hide it with smile. Some friends who had lost their home had tried counselling themselves thinking that there is no human casualties. 

The quake created a real havoc. Immense loss of life of people (7800 people as I write this blog), thousands injured, loss of major cultural sites, etc. I had never imagined that Earthquake of this scale would hit Nepal. But now as it had occurred, there was nothing we could do beside trying to curb the casualties. 

Then the following day another big aftershock, 6.8 on Richter Scale hit Nepal again which make the situation here more intense. People had started to live in open space with intense fear, of not only quake but also of burglary, theft, etc. Thousand of household, including women, elderly and children where in roofless open space waiting for some relief from the side of government as well as mother nature.

Meanwhile, we in Chittoor were about write our exams after two days. But it was really difficult condition to do so as we were stressed with what was happening back home.   

I was feeling so helpless that I immediately wanted to come back to Nepal. I couldn't bear imagining the guilt because of not being able to help my people, my country at this hour of need. This was an higher order calling of my country and I just wanted to be there to serve her.  

As such I started to convince the officials of our college to consider such condition on humanitarian grounds and give us leave to return back home. Thanks to the college officers who promised to look after us, in case any problem arises. Anyway that was not a big issue as we had decided to come back home and started booking return tickets. In some couple of days we would be back to wipe the tears of our motherland.