Krishna was featured in last month’s Nepal’s Nightmare story on Dateline. He showed Meggie Palmer inside his badly damaged home, but things have got much worse for him and his family since…
I had heard there had been a massive and destructive earthquake in 1934 in our country Nepal. I had read in newspapers that Nepal lies in an active seismic zone.
Experts were warning that a massive earthquake has been striking Nepal every 80-100 years and it could occur anytime soon as the last one was some 82 years ago.
Sometimes I would be fearful thinking what if… earthquake? But who cares when everything is going normal.
We were a happy family. We had our own home in Kathmandu. We would earn rental income which was sufficient for us to make a living.
My parents were spending retired life from work. I and my two younger brothers were studying.
Krishna and his family lived on the fifth floor of their building and earnt their income through rent. Source: SBS
I had a mission to be a successful professional after the completion of studies. My brothers too were doing well in their studies. They had their own respective dreams.
It was the day of April 25, which I call a ‘black day’ for us. It was Saturday, a weekly holiday in our country. The clock had struck 11.56 in the morning.
After having our morning meal, me, dad, mum and brothers were watching TV in a room on the fifth floor of our home in Kathmandu.
Abruptly, the TV shook and shut down in no time. No sooner had my dad yelled ‘earthquake’ than our home started shaking terribly.
Books from shelves started falling on the floor. We heard loud noises from outside. Our home developed cracks.
We got terrified and began crying, screaming. It felt like this was the last day for us. We formed a chain hugging one another praying to god.
Dateline's Meggie Palmer followed Krishna as he returned to the house for the first time after the quake to assess the damage. Source: SBS
The home kept shaking so badly that we couldn’t rush downstairs. Plumes of dust and smoke kept coming in from the window hinting that nearby buildings and structures may have collapsed.
Then after about a minute the shaking seemed to stop and we hurriedly ran downstairs towards the street.
There I saw homes collapsed, people rushing to the suburb of Bus Park screaming and crying. We too rushed there as it was the nearest open space for us.
When we reached Bus Park we heaved a huge sigh of relief thinking at least we survived.
Hundreds of people were already there, some screaming, some crying, some hugging each other in despair, some trying to call their relatives through mobile phones to know their status and so on.
After sometime, sirens of ambulances, police vans were heard.
Dead bodies, beyond identification of faces, were seen scattered. I was scared since I had never witnessed corpses through my own eyes before in such a way.
The injured, buried in rubble were being taken to hospital. Some people were crying saying their relatives were lying buried in the debris asking for help.
News started coming in that a massive quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale had hit central Nepal causing huge destruction of both people and property.
We, all the five members of the family, stayed together throughout that day along with thousands of people in the open space in Bus Park.
Krishna was one of the many people Dateline met on the streets of Kathmandu, struggling to cope in the aftermath of the earthquake. Source: SBS
We were further terrified by every subsequent aftershock. We lost hope.
We heard that thousands are expected to have been killed in the quake as the hundreds of dead bodies were being recovered, and we thanked the almighty for saving us.
Yet we were not sure we really survived since there were repeated aftershocks and rumours were spread that another mega earthquake of magnitude above 9 could strike.
All we had in our mind was whether we survive or not and nothing else. That very night we slept in the open in Bus Park with tremendous fear in mind.
Then next day with the onset of dawn, everybody there looked pale with reddish eyes without proper sleep, food.
We heard international rescue teams were coming in and carrying relief material too. No relief material reached our area.
As the government and international relief materials were sent out focusing on rural areas only.
We survived with the little cash we had left. Later some relief came but it was not sufficient.
We had hoped that we could go to our home and live there once the aftershocks were over, as there was not major structural damage to our home, but another massive earthquake on May 12 took a nasty turn.
That second major earthquake has now rendered our home uninhabitable causing severe damage though it still stands.
Now we have still been living in a tent for over one and half months since the quake. We don’t know what to do next.
Krishna and his family have been refused government help, as although their house is uninhabitable, it's still standing. Source: SBS
The government has declared to give some amount for making temporary shelters for those whose homes are completely damaged and fallen.
But when we go for help to the government authorities, they say that amount is not for us as our home still stands.
They don’t understand that though the home is still erect, it is uninhabitable and needs demolishing.
So we are homeless and running short of money too. We are living miserable life.
With the destruction, we have not only lost our home but also the only source of income which we would earn as rent.
My parents are old and can’t work. I am the eldest son but I still need two more years for the completion of my studies.
Meggie and Krishna had to run as a building near his collapsed. Another building can be seen leaning as they look back down the street after reaching safety. Source: SBS
Only then could I earn to feed my family. If I leave my studies and go to work now I can’t earn much to sustain our livelihood.
It will only hamper my studies and my future career. My younger brothers are in junior grades, let alone expecting income from them.
Our days are really dark after the quake.
See Dateline's interview with Krishna in our Nepal's Nightmare story and find out how to help families like his affected by the quake:
READ MORE
Nepal earthquake: How you can help
