Quake
Suman, whom I stayed with for a time in Kathmandu last year, is all right. His family is all right. His parents are sleeping in a tent: the house in the village of Dhulikel where I stayed with them has collapsed. The Dharahara tower, iconic symbol of Kathmandu whose 213 steps I climbed in September, is a stump. The Kasthamandap, the ancient wooden temple in Durbar Square from which the city got its name, is a pile of rubble.
N, who has lived in Kathmandu for some years, was by chance just returning to visit the UK when the quake struck. The plane was sitting on the runway at the time, and took off after a few hours' delay. Basant, the travel agent, is safe along with his family, but I've not heard from Shyam, who I believe is in Australia, many of whose family still lived in Nuwakot district, north-west of Kathmandu, which was near the epicentre and is reported to have been flattened. I went to a two-day celebration of his brother's wedding in their village there in 2006.
In 2001 when I went with friends to Nepal for the first time, we trekked up the Langtang valley. An altitude headache prevented me making the final day's ascent to Kyanjin Gompa, so the others left me in Langtang village till their return the next day. According to the Nepali Times, Langtang is destroyed and almost all its inhabitants presumed dead. That night I was the only guest in the teahouse, and learnt the Nepali card game dhum by watching the landlord and his friends by candlelight. (It was the dry season, so the local hydro was producing no power.) Once I'd picked up the rules I joined in and lost a few rupees. In the morning I went for a walk round the village; I met a man sitting in his yard making rope, whose totally deaf son was delighted when I improvised a few words of sign language, and a small boy who abandoned his half-naked ablutions in the stream to run after me shouting his two words of English: 'Hello! Hello! Pen! Pen! Pen!'
*
Suman writes: "We are raising fund to distribute medicines, tent, water, food, clothes and other supplies for earthquake victims in villages of Nepal in association with Nepal Red Cross society, Banepa branch. Although government is receiving foreign grants, no effectiveness is noticed on rescuing earthquake victims and strengthening their current status. A small sum that people donate will create a huge difference for needy people out here."
I'm happy to pass on small sums, and should anyone want to donate non-small ones, among many other channels the Disasters Emergency Committee is co-ordinating the response of a number of major relief agencies.
N, who has lived in Kathmandu for some years, was by chance just returning to visit the UK when the quake struck. The plane was sitting on the runway at the time, and took off after a few hours' delay. Basant, the travel agent, is safe along with his family, but I've not heard from Shyam, who I believe is in Australia, many of whose family still lived in Nuwakot district, north-west of Kathmandu, which was near the epicentre and is reported to have been flattened. I went to a two-day celebration of his brother's wedding in their village there in 2006.
In 2001 when I went with friends to Nepal for the first time, we trekked up the Langtang valley. An altitude headache prevented me making the final day's ascent to Kyanjin Gompa, so the others left me in Langtang village till their return the next day. According to the Nepali Times, Langtang is destroyed and almost all its inhabitants presumed dead. That night I was the only guest in the teahouse, and learnt the Nepali card game dhum by watching the landlord and his friends by candlelight. (It was the dry season, so the local hydro was producing no power.) Once I'd picked up the rules I joined in and lost a few rupees. In the morning I went for a walk round the village; I met a man sitting in his yard making rope, whose totally deaf son was delighted when I improvised a few words of sign language, and a small boy who abandoned his half-naked ablutions in the stream to run after me shouting his two words of English: 'Hello! Hello! Pen! Pen! Pen!'
*
Suman writes: "We are raising fund to distribute medicines, tent, water, food, clothes and other supplies for earthquake victims in villages of Nepal in association with Nepal Red Cross society, Banepa branch. Although government is receiving foreign grants, no effectiveness is noticed on rescuing earthquake victims and strengthening their current status. A small sum that people donate will create a huge difference for needy people out here."
I'm happy to pass on small sums, and should anyone want to donate non-small ones, among many other channels the Disasters Emergency Committee is co-ordinating the response of a number of major relief agencies.