With Nepal experiencing more earthquakes on Tuesday, Santosh Andhale speaks to Harsh Garg, Executive Director, Jagdamba Foods, who has been staying in the mountain nation for the past 30 years.
It was 12:35 pm, and I was with 20 of my staff in my Jagdamba Foods office, located in Nupane Tower, Baneshwar in Kathmandu. We were doing routine work. Suddenly, the whole office building started shaking. Terrified, we rushed out. It was extremely scary. Three employees from our building had been badly injured while rushing out from the office premises. Some of the surrounding houses had collapsed. Since the April 25th earthquake, we in Nepal have faced nearly 150 minor aftershocks but today's tremor was very dangerous. People were crying and running for open spaces.
My house is located in Balwa Tower, exactly beside the prime minister's residence. My wife was also very scared and rushed out of the house. All people came out on the road and gathered in open spaces. Everybody was praying, people were speechless. Nobody knew what was happening.
Over the past week, only about 60 % of the routine activity in the city had resumed. People had slowly accepted the fact of the disaster and gone back to work.
After the first earthquake, most people had been sleeping outdoors because they were afraid. They recently went back into their homes. But after today's tremor people have gone into shock from which they might not recover so readily. They are just crying and feeling helpless. They are very furious.
Now it is very difficult for people to overcome this fear. Fearing more tremors, many people have shifted to the neighboring country. If there are more quakes, more people will choose this option.
I have been living in Nepal for the past 30 years. I saw an earthquake in 1988, but have not seen such levels of casualties.
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