It happened over six days ago but the memory is fresh in Lekhnath Pathak’s mind. He was in the lab around 12 noon when his Nepali friend from Delhi called. Busy at work, Lekhnath cut the call and his friend sent him a message about the earthquake. “The SMS about Nepal earthquake was like a jolt. The first thought was, of course, the safety of my family,” he recalls. His wife and two sons live in Keertipur, an area close to Tribhuvan University where Lekhnath had been teaching before he decided to pursue his doctorate in cognitive science at the University of Hyderabad. Lekhnath spent the day anxiously, trying to reach them. “I managed to talk to my wife only by 6 p.m. on Saturday. I was relieved that there were fine. Even now, my only source of information is Twitter. I am glued to the computer,” he points out.
Even as he keeps a tab on developments in Nepal, he has become part of the Nepal Earthquake Solidarity Group in Hyderabad which is trying to collect monetary donations to send to Nepal. Other members in the group include Umesh Rajbanshi, another Nepali pursuing his doctorate in physics at the University, Arnab Anjaria, pursuing Ph.D in Human Rights and Dr. M.N. Rajesh, assistant professor of history in HCU. The donations are scheduled to be sent to Nepal during May last week. “The first phase of relief is going on. The debris and rubble is being cleared and the rehabilitation process is going on. Once the media attention shifts from Nepal and the aid reduces, the second phase begins. That’s when the crisis will actually be felt. We are trying to reach out to them during that time,” says a student at HCU. The students say it is heartbreaking to watch their kith and kin suffer living in tents and suffer for food, medicines and water.
Elsewhere at Osmania University, it is an evening of remembering friends and families. More than 100 students including foreign and Indian students hold a candle march mourning the quake victims. The rally also has a donation box where youngsters offer their contributions. As Pratishta Koirala, an MBA student walks along, she talks about the exasperating moments she experienced while waiting to connect to her family. “It was an agonising wait till I knew my family was safe. Now, my final exams are on so I am not able to go to Nepal. It is distressing to see the images of Kathmandu on television.
It is not just a human loss; it is also a cultural loss as all our monuments are in ruins. Everyone is concentrating on Kathmandu but the relief operations have to reach interior villages to know the extent of actual destruction,” she observes.
On Wednesday, Madan Bhusal, a Nepali event manager living in Hyderabad held a DJ event at Cuba Libre, GVK One, in aid of quake victims. Lekhnath says the concern is to shift his family to Shillong. “My older son was fine but my younger son was traumatised with the aftershocks. I am here in Hyderabad and not able to go to Nepal.
There is also a fear of an epidemic so I am talking to my family over the phone asking them to go to a relative’s house in Shillong,” he adds. For now, the Nepalese say it is television and internet which keeps them connected to their homeland.
