(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The labour attaché at the Nepali embassy is among those from the Himalayan nation in Qatar whose house in Kathmandu was not spared by Saturday's devastating tremor as it developed severe vertical cracks.
Lila Nath Dahal was, though, lucky that his wife and 11-year-old son who were in the house at the time the tragedy struck escaped unscathed and are safe.
In fact, the entire area (Kapan), where his house was located, has suffered the jolt of the quake and people have all been evacuated and moved to safety.
"People have been moved to open spaces for safety and my wife and son are among them. My relatives and friends are taking care of them," Dahal told The Peninsula yesterday. "Right now I have no plans to visit Nepal."
Dahal said that on Saturday, at a few minutes past 9 in the morning he was cooking at home and enjoying Nepali songs on an FM radio, the programme was stopped midway and the news of a quake having hit Kathmandu Valley was broken.
"The news bulletin, flashed at Nepal time 11.57am, went on for a few minutes and then the radio went blank. There was only this empty sound of a bleep that was coming." Nepal is 2.45 hours behind Qatar.
Extremely worried, Dahal said he accessed BBC Live and later began surfing the Internet for some Nepali news websites to confirm what the FM Radio had announced.
"I then began desperately trying to contact my family on phone but in vain. I called almost all cell numbers I had of friends and relatives in Nepal but with little success as I wouldn't get the connection."
Dahal said he turned panicky and was on the mobile phone for two hours without break, trying one number after the other, but with no luck.
"And, suddenly, this friend of mine took the phone and I had a sigh of relief but was still worried as I didn't know the fate of my wife and son."
However, in a while the friend went up to his house and not only told him that his family was safe but also let him speak with his wife and son.
The problem, according to Dahal, is that even if mobile phone services are not disrupted, since there is no electricity, people are not able to charge their mobile handsets.
Dahal said that while he was lucky many of his fellow Nepalese were not as they lost their near and dear ones in the tragedy.
The worst affected areas, he said, were in Kathmandu Valley which consists of Kathmandu district, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Other areas like Nuwakot, Dhading and Chitwan are also hit. An entire heritage village has collapsed in the quake.
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