It was 25 April 2015 Saturday, I was at Bouddhanath Stupa (UNESKO World Heritage Site). I was there in the morning time with my British group for sightseeing. After walking around the stupa, I gave them some free time to explore the site and we’ve decided to meet for the lunch. I said, I’ll be waiting them in a restaurant to make their lunch ready. It was Cafe Du Temple restaurant around Bouddhanath stupa. It was 11:56 am NST, I was on the rooftop of the restaurant arranging for the lunch. Suddenly, the restaurant building started shaking tremendously. I had no idea what was going on that moment. I rolled my eye sight everywhere, most of the rooftop water tanks were falling apart, then I’ve realized it was terrible massive earthquake.
I could see so many people were running in search of safe place. I decided to be there as where I was. So that, I could wait for my guest. Thank fully they’ve reached to the restaurant safely. We were quite sure about that nothing going to happen with that restaurant building and would be safer place for all of us. Cause, it was quite new and tough building compare to others. We waited there for more than half an hour. later on, we decided to move directly to the hotel. While we were on our way to the hotel, we could still feel aftershocks and lots of people were crying and weeping. Because, lots of houses and monuments got collapsed and people were injured very badly and dying. After reaching at the hotel I suggested my guest not to come out of the hotel premises and stay safe too.
Well, my first responsibility was passed out leaving my guest safely at the hotel. But, the second responsibility of my home was yet to be done. I was quite worried about my family after that, cause, I live in Patan city and my house was also an old and traditional style house. And I couldn’t connect to the phone network at the moment to get connect with them. Phone network wasn’t working at all. I was only thinking of my family that moment. After an hour, I’ve reached at Patan from the hotel. Suddenly, my phone rang, I was surprised! It was my younger sister, luckily I got connected with her. Then, without saying Hello! I asked her? Where are you? How are you? How’s Mom? She said, we’re all good at the moment then I took a deep breath…..
Well, for the first time I’ve experienced such a huge and massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake. I couldn’t express those terrible feelings at that time. Nepal earthquake of 2015, also called Gorkha earthquake, severe earthquake that struck near the city of Kathmandu in central Nepal on April 25, 2015. About 9,000 people were killed, many thousands more were injured, and more than 600,000 structures in Kathmandu and other nearby towns were either damaged or destroyed. The earthquake was felt throughout central and eastern Nepal, much of the Ganges River plain in northern India, and northwestern Bangladesh, as well as in the southern parts of the Plateau of Tibet and western Bhutan. The initial shock, which registered a moment magnitude of 7.8, struck shortly before noon local time (about 06:11 AM Greenwich Mean Time). Its epicenter was about 21 miles (34 km) east-southeast of Lamjung and 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Kathmandu, and its focus was 9.3 miles (about 15 km) underground. Two large aftershocks, with magnitudes 6.6 and 6.7, shook the region within one day of the main quake, and several dozen smaller aftershocks occurred in the region during the succeeding days. On May 12 a magnitude-7.3 aftershock struck some 76 km (47 miles) east-northeast of Kathmandu, killing more than 100 people and injuring nearly 1,900. As the day wore on, reports had the total number of fatalities surpassing 1,000 and nearing 1,900 by the end of the first day. The deaths of approximately 9,000 people (which included fatalities in nearby parts of India, China, and Bangladesh) were confirmed, with nearly 16,800 injured and some 2.8 million people displaced by the earthquake. One United Nations (UN) report mentioned that more than eight million people (more than one-fourth of Nepal’s population) were affected by the event and its aftermath.
