Prachi Ayer

April 25, 2015 was a black day,  a day every Nepali will remember after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the central mid-hills at around mid-day. It not only left everyone in trauma but also rendered many people emaciated, homeless and grieving for the loss of their relatives, friends or fellow citizens.

Watching the people live without the roof broke my heart. A member of Leo’s Club Sunrise, I went to several affected areas to help and donate foods, sanitary napkins and medicines as per my capacity. While I visited each tent to provide some sustenance I learned that life is unforeseen, and no matter how hard you work to gain possessions, it can get demolished just with a shake. Hearing different stories about how people survived and how they got injured made me realize that we ought to live our life to the fullest.

Those who survived this unprepared catastrophe are the ones who got a new life, and are the ones who should live as an aid to the victims, doing what we love, and achieving what we dreamed for. I saw many people volunteering for the earthquake relief, from teenagers to old people. A lot of helping hands, donating something or the other showed how united we Nepali are and how much we value humanity. But when everything was getting normal, the 2nd massive earthquake of 7 magnitude hit Nepal on May 12, 2015. This built an apprehension in every Nepali’s mind. People who were back to their house started returning to the tents for some more months again. Even though the aftershocks continued, which were no less than 4 magnitude, the donations and help for the victims did not stop. Many temporary shelters were made, blood donation programs were organized, stationeries were collected and distributed, sanitation programs were held, and with all these efforts every Nepali united, and with the help of domestic as well as foreign aids got strong. Nepal is rising again.

There are new rays of hope as bright as sunshine in every Nepali’s eye that everything is going to be okay soon. The earthquake took the lives of many human beings and damaged many possessions offering a lesson that all the mundane attributes of us like greed, boorishness, hunger, insatiable needs are nothing as valuable as our own lives. It taught every Nepali to think for their people and work for the relief from the damage done. But even more important than that, it taught us the value of life as the quote goes by Abraham Lincoln, “In the end, It’s not the years in your life that counts. It’s the life in your years”.

Prachi Ayer is +2 graduate of United Academy