On 4th Jan 2016, Nepal Rises team distributed warm blankets and foam mattresses to 24 Families in Dalchoki, Lalitpur. While visiting the place we came across a story of an old man and his experience of the earthquake.
An old man is sitting cold and stooped facing towards the sun to get some heat. He is called Meme by all the villagers of Dalchowki in Lalitpur, although his name is Chandra Lal Neisur. Talking to us with shivering voice, he is just able to use a couple of words to express his agreement to what his son mentions about his journey of life. It is difficult for him to speak as he now suffers from asthma, and has partial blindness and deafness.

His son adds, “my father had to witness two major earthquakes in his lifetime and shares his experience with us”. In the earthquake of 1990 B.S. which had a large impact in Kathmandu and surrounding areas, he was just 11 years old. He had survived it through rough conditions. Today, he is not able to recall his memory of old times.
His current experience of surviving the earthquake of 25th April 2015 was far worse than the one that took place in 1990 B.S. He was buried in rubble for hours until his grand-daughter-in-law, Anjana, came to the rescue. He explains that all his family members had gone out to the field except for his grand-daughter-in –law. His house had collapsed.

He is now living under a temporary shelter which the community had managed to build themselves. It is still not a good sight as the place is awfully cold. Chandra Lal Neisur and his family had somehow managed to survive through the earthquake and the following monsoon weather.

However, they are not optimistic about the winter. Chandra Lal Neisur finally speaks up and adds to his son’s story, “I have managed to survive two major earthquakes, the chaos, the rain but I don’t think I can manage to cope up with this awful winter”.