Echoes of the earthquake: Singati
In April 2015, Nepal was hit by two subsequent earthquakes, killing nearly 9,000 people, flattening whole villages and profoundly disrupting the livelihoods and lives of millions of Nepalis. Dolakha, the epicentre of the second earthquake, is still undergoing massive reconstruction projects. There was an undercurrent of recent loss in a number of the conversations we had in Dolakha, which was sometimes very obvious but other times more subtle. In Singati one day we wandered into a small teashop to avoid a downpour of rain. It was simple inside. They sold buscuits and a few fried snacks. We ordered teas and buscuits and sat with the middle aged owner and her small son, who was wearing a pair of seriously cool sunglasses. The woman had a wearied look and wore a faded pink sweater over her kurta surwal. She seemed bored, or lonely, and eager to talk. She spoke fondly of an elderly, stout (moti) British woman who had come to work at the school in town years back. Then the conversation turned the Red Cross camp that had been set up in the wake of the earthquake. She had been staying or working in the camp and spoke with some emotion of the period, particularly of the people arriving from the surrounding hillsides with fractured limbs, often leaving behind deceased or lost family members. She recounted sleeping outside during the uncertain days that followed. In Singati, dozens of people were killed in a landslide caused by the second major tremour weeks after the first quake. They including residents and relief workers transporting emergency supplies. The teashop owner watched her son absently as he took charge of the sales counter, standing on a stool, and we tried to imagine what it must been like for her at the time.