A day that has now been marked in the history of our country is April 25, 2015. Unbelievable it was in every aspect and ever since the earthquake struck our nation, we’ve been lost for words. We’ve all heard tales about the “Nabbe Saal Ko Bhuyichalo” or the earthquake that took place in our country in the 90s. The devastation it caused was shocking as something this devastating had never ever been seen before by me. I thought the earthquake was like any other earthquake but I was completely wrong.
It would be true to say that I had been exhausted the week earlier and I had planned to sleep the whole day that Saturday. But something ahead was there to ruin my plans. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake woke me out of my sleep and like any other person I jumped off my bed and ran out of my house. Suddenly, I heard the scream of my mother. I went up to get her and brought her down while the ground was still shaking. Then, I saw my cousin and my aunt coming down. There were screams, tears and fear people when we went out on the road. I tried to do the best to explain to other that the worst was over. But again, another quake struck the nation. The aftershocks just kept on coming. This was scary. The people around me were scared like never before. I wanted to go home but my mom didn’t let me. We all slept in the garden of the house making plans to sleep in tents throughout the night. People who didn’t have a proper place to spend their night inside the compound of their houses crashed in any available free space. We were completely unknown to what was going around the country as we could not watch the TV. To add to that, the phone lines were busy. Soon, we started receiving messages which brought tears to everyone’s eyes. We heard news saying Darahara collapsed, Basantapur got destroyed and a lot of people lost their lives. These news made us realize that this quake was bigger than what we thought it was. On our effort to save our self from any danger, we tried to contact our relatives and our close ones. I was relieved to know that the people I knew were all safe but the devastation the disaster caused gave us mixed feelings. In the hopes to see a better day tomorrow, we passed through the day.
This was the first day all the people of the country felt like my own people. I was filled with a guilt to see that we had better resources than other people in the nation and even in my own locality. I wanted to help others. There were moments that made me feel nostalgic as well because I remembered a lot of things I learnt in my school such as “Lead for God, Lead for Nepal”. “Karod Diyo ko Gham Banera Desh Ujyalo Parne Chau” and “People for Others”. That day I felt like everybody should have equal resources and should help each other. May this is a new start which will further lead to our country coming together one. I felt the need to do something for the country on my own level to make tomorrow a better day for you and me.