The aftershocks did not leave us for the entire night. Maximum of us slept in cars and in tents outside our houses and in open spaces. Each one of us was scared and did not get sleep because of the fear of bigger earthquake coming back again. We were the lucky ones who could arrange a tent or had a car to get in. There were thousands around who lost everything and also their loved ones. There was nothing left except that one word which was “hope” as we prayed for the vibration to stop. The world was praying for the same as the jolts did not stop. There were under the open sky which must have been the most difficult time for them. To worsen the situation, it started drizzling. We couldn’t imagine how people in the rural area would have been living. We just surpassed and survived the earthquake and now the challenge was to stay alive in the hardest moments.

We slept on the ground floor and woke up around ten times in the middle of the night. All of us ran to the garden of the house as soon as any one of us felt the beds were shaking. There were times when my little brother got up with panic in the lightest of tremble. We were expecting aftershocks after the disaster but not in the highest of magnitude. The sleepless night felt like eternity.

The morning news was saddening as the death toll around the country was reported and the areas on the outskirts and in valley were affected badly. Thankfully the phone lines were working and we could get connected to our near ones. Messages, phone calls, mails from across the world were being received by people we knew to know if things were fine. The answer to this was tricky as there were rumours of a bigger earthquake with a higher magnitude. Even if we understood that there is no timing for catastrophe and it just happens without anyone preparing for it, we were nervous. The same thoughts kept revolving as the social networking sites were flooded with the earthquake posts.

There was another tremor the second day which was really bad. People were mostly outside their homes nevertheless the ground started shaking and the feeling of a calamity coming to an end was far away. We saw the buildings sway and stayed back on the outside for hours as the plates had surely not settled. We were helpless and wished that Mother Nature would be kind to us with no more tremors.