The Richter Scale That Shook Humanity, Nepal Earthquake 2015 Experiences

There are times and memories that can't be forgotten no matter how hard you try. I still have the vivid memories of the disaster that occured 2 and half years ago in Nepal. It sometimes hunts me in my dreams and I try to feel my bed if it is still shaking. Time has passed by the earthquake of 2015 but it still have left some wounds that cannot be treated easily and fast. I was visiting the Kathmandu Durbar Square with my uncle due to some work around there and I was devastated by the effects of earthquake. So I noted down this topic in my notepad and started wrtiting about it. In this post I would be sharing the Nepal earthquake 2015 effects and my memories related with it.
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It was April 15, 2015. The day was gloomy and the sun was hiding behind the clouds and it was so cold in April as if it was January(April is usually warm in Nepal). I was only few weeks away my grade 11th board exams and I was solving the problems of Physics when I heard a loud sound as if it was a bull dozer coming near to my place. I was in Kathmandu that time some 300 kilometers away from my home. When I came out to veranda to figure out what it was I started to feel the trembles of the building. It didn't took long for me to figure out it was an Earthquake!

My flat was at the fourth floor which was also the top floor of the building. Outside the room was some empty space where I was standing at the moment. The building was swinging like a pendulum. This was my first experience with earthquake. I never had experienced any major or minor quakes before this. I was holding the railing and was praying hard with god. I was crying but I think the sound created by the quake was much louder than my screams. At some point that time it felt like I was going to get buried inside the piles of debris of the buildings. This was the first time I had been real close with death.

I somehow managed to hold the staircase railing when the quakes became some slow. I got down the building and ran for some safe place. I could see some other people from neighbourhood run for safety as well. There were some gatherings in an open place where I reached some 2 minutes after getting down. I sort of felt safe as I could see a lot of people which added to my courage to live. We then moved to a more open place and I was bare footed. I somehow had managed to get my phone getting out. I got this call from my dad when I reached the safe place. I cried with dad but i didn't want him to freak out so pacified him and told him I was okay.

I was lucky that my Sister had been in town that time for her works. I met her at around 5 in the evening. That was when I decided to go to my room with her to get something warm for me. I packed some clothes in my bag, got something to eat and drink, tied my boots and we got out from the room. We felt another quake in the room( it wasn't that large quake though).

The real trouble came at night. Everyone was moving to a safer place to spend the night. So we decided to go to Tundikhel where we spent the night in conjusted place. We couldn't even get out as it started raining and we weren't even carrying an umbrella. But being alive was more important than getting sleep that night.

The next day we started roaming to see what casualties had this quake brought to the beautiful city of temple. All we could see was the tall buildings brought down to the ground and the dead or wonded people on the road being treated by medics. I had never seen something like that. I was emotioanlly shocked seeing all these in front of me. That night as well we spent in the same conjusted place which was basically full of hopeless people either weeping in their loss or telling their quake stories.

The next day we decided to move back home to Syangja (That's some 300 km away from the capital). It was being really difficult to get anything to eat and sleep there. So we talked with some of my friends from my hometown and we reserved a bus to Syangja and in the evening we moved to our homeplace. This was when I realised I was grateful to be alive.

The earthquake was originated from Barpak VDC of Gorkha district whose tremblems had been felt all over the country and some places of India and China. It was measured to be 7.8 on Richter scale. It brought about a lot of human casualties and other destruction to Nepal. All the important natural, religious and historical monuments and places were changed into debris and the human dead coubt reached almost 10,000.

I have added some pictures of destruction caused by it below.

All images taken from Nepali Times