Page 12 - XIC Class Magazine

went to other heritage sites such as Boudha stupa, Durbar Square, Swayambhunath Stupa and Patan
Durbar Square.

In the afternoon, we had lunch from a posh restaurant and proceeded to a heritage site named
Hanuman Dhoka, where all ancient and traditional items of Nepal tribes were preserved. The place
was enclosed on all four sides with buildings, with only a narrow entrance on one side. We saw an
ancient building which was said to preserve ancient architectural items and decided to go inside after
doing some shopping. As soon as we walked towards the open space in the enclosed area , there was
a sudden rumbling sound followed by a wild shake and we lost balance and were almost about to fall
down. In a split of a second we heard a noise from our backside, and were trembled to see that the
very ancient building which we were talking about, collapse right in front of us and turn to a heap of
mud. By the time we realised that it was a violent earthquake, we were all running around for our
lives. We were hardly able to breath for a while and the realisation that we got scatterd in the crowd
was even more terrible. The aftershocks were continuing violently. After the dust had settled, we were
able to find each other, all drenched in mud and dust from top to toe. For a moment we thought we
were going to die and held on to each other, preparing ourselves to die together. After standing still

like that for about fifteen minutes, my father and his friend decided to move on with us to a
safer and more open place.

Risking our own lives, we literally started running out of the enclosed place, and kept running
till we reached the place where our car was parked. To our dismay, the car was stuck among the debris
of a nearby building and could not be moved at all. We were hardly managing not to fall amidst the
continuing after shocks. We then decided to keep running till we find a safe place. We ran along the
crowded roads and among other panic struck people and finally reached an open ground where we
dropped down on the ground, struggling for breath. We could see helicopters roaming around and
realised the fact that the whole of Nepal has been affected by a massive earthquake. We lost
communication with rest of our family. There were hardly any vehicles plying on the road. We waited
there for more than an hour, trembling in the aftershocks and finally decided to run back home again,
which was quite far away. Luckily we managed to board a public carrier on our way and on our way
back we were shocked to see the Dharahara Tower come down, claiming several lives. We got down
a little far from home and ran again to our family friend’s residence only to find that everything there
had been damaged too. All the residents were gathered in the ground, filled with anxiety and fear.
Our flight back to India was scheduled at 8 pm that night and we were stuck in Nepal. Our friend
managed to get our things from his house which was partially destroyed and somehow arranged a taxi
for us to go to the airport.

We bid a sad goodbye to our family friends. When we reached the airport by 5.30 pm, , we
were told that all flights were cancelled since the airport was damaged in the eathquake. We were
plunged in despair, not knowing what to do. We did not want to go back to our friend either, and give
him more trouble looking after us. It was an endless wait and finally we got the good news by 11 pm
that an Air Force rescue flight is coming to save us. By the time we were allowed inside the damaged
airport, we had been verty tired with not even a drop of water to drink. Finally after a long wait which
seemed endless, we boarded the rescue flight with the help of our dear Air Force officers at midnight