उमेर (Age):
17
ब्यावसाय/सम्बन्धन (Profession/affiliation): मिडिया क्षेत्र (media sector) / गैर मिडिया क्षेत्र (non-media sector)
गैर मिडिया क्षेत्र (non-media sector)
बैसाख १२ गते भुकम्प जाँदा तपाईं कहाँ हुनुहुन्थ्यो र के गर्दै हुनुहुन्थ्यो? (Please describe where you were and what you were doing when the earthquake hit Nepal on 25 April 2015?)
I was in my room watching Dragonball with my little brother when the earthquake hit the country.
भुकुम्प जाने बित्तिकै तपाईंले कस्तो प्रतिक्रिया (मानसिक, शारीरिक) प्रकट गर्नु भयो र के गर्नु भयो? (Please describe your immediate mental and physical reaction, and your response following the quake).
The chair I was sitting on began shaking violently, and my immediate response was to grab my little brother and stay under my table. I remember thinking that maybe I wouldn’t make it alive, and I also remember thinking of some of the things I hadn’t done or said in life that I should already have done before the earthquake hit. I was scared, because I feared I would have left so many things unsaid had I not made it through the quake.
त्यतिखेर तपाइलाई सब भन्दा महत्वपूर्ण कुरा (सरोकार) के लागेको थियो? (What were your most important concerns at that time?)
My most important concerns were to keep my family calm. Grandma was screaming incoherently into the wind, while my mother and brother were hysterical in their reactions. I had to calm them down, and that was my most important concern at that time.
त्यस बेला तपाईंले के-कस्ता सुचना खोज्नु भयो? तपाईंले आवश्यक सुचनाहरु पाउनु भयो त? (What types of information were you looking for at that time? Did you have access to all the information you needed?)
At that time, I wanted to know which places had been hit the hardest and how extensive the damage was. I had access to some of the information, but I didn’t get all the information I was looking for.
रेडियो, टेलिभिजन, समाचारपत्र, अनलाईन जस्ता समाचार स्रोतहरु तपाइलाई जानकारी दिन कत्तिको उपयोगी साबित भए? मिडियाका कुन पक्ष कमजोर, कुन पक्ष सबल रहे? (How helpful were news media such as radio, television, newspapers, online news portals, etc in informing you immediately after the quake and the days following it? Please note their strengths as well as weaknesses).
They were very helpful in giving information immediately after the quake and the days following it. Their strengths were that the updates were very, very frequent and the news spread very fast. The one weakness they had was that the news they did bring was sometimes repetitive. Overall though, the news media did a decent job with spreading the information.
भुकम्प पछिको हफ्ता कसरी बिताउनु भो? (Please describe how you spent the week following the quake– what you did, etc.).
I stayed the first night inside a tent. After that, I went volunteering, and worked for the local youth Red Cross. I also joined night patrol duties for two nights, after which I began volunteering outside my community. In that period, I also tried getting in contact with all the people, near and dear, to me and my family.
त्यो हफ्ता तपाईंको सबैभन्दा स्मरणीय कुरा? (Any memorable facts or incidents during the week, following the quake?)
The second night of the night patrol, I was resting after the first of my patrols ended. Apparently, I had fallen asleep, on a chair, and because of that, my face got very close to the bonfire that the guys at the night patrol had started. When I woke up, my face was inches from the bonfire, and the funny thing is, I was so sleepy that the bonfire didn’t even startle me!
बैसाख १२ गतेको भुकम्पवाट हामीले के पाठ सिक्नु पर्छ? (What are some of the lessons that we should take away from the 25 April 2015 quake in Nepal?)
I feel that, first and foremost, the country should form a very precise planning system for the cities wherein the houses are built in a very systematic way. Also, every house that gets built should have all the quake-proof measures available in the country. In addition to that, the government must be quicker in mobilizing national military for relief efforts such as search and rescue, relief distribution and crowd management.