The delay that saved them

“The Dharahara tower was completely destroyed, killing many, as we learnt a few hours later. Had we reached the tower on time, we could have been among the dead,” he said with a shudder.

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Soon the water tank of the hotel came crashing down. Alpesh grabbed Suhavi and rushed down with Arpita in tow. When they emerged out of the building, all they could see was people rushing around, and vehicles lined up on the road amidst constant shouts and rumblings.

“We were 50 of us from the hotel, including the staff members. The management asked us to stay out in a cafeteria and not to go inside the room until things stabilised,” he recounted. A hotel standing second from their right had also collapsed, with many feared dead and buried.

They passed entire night bunched together in the cafeteria where they were served food. Accompanying them were tourists from different nationalities, all waiting to make an escape. The radio constantly relayed news of destruction all over Nepal. “A radio placed near us updated news of earthquake. There were news that two more major earthquakes will be felt on Saturday night, between 12 and 4. We sat through two more strong quakes as we waited for the dawn to break,” he said.

Alpesh’s father, Vijay Desai, a retired government employee, started making frantic calls to reach out to them but could not. “We were only left with prayers, when a neighbour came to show us the WhatsApp image my son had sent. My phone does not have WhatsApp facility, and only messages through WhatsApp was possible,” Desai said.

“The coffee house we were sheltered in, had free WiFI facility which was active until midnight. Using it, I sent images to a neighbour to say that we were fine,” Alpesh said.

The Desais had planned this trip a month in advance to celebrate Alpesh’s 42nd birthday on April 22, and were scheduled to return to Vadodara on Monday morning by a flight from Delhi, which they did, after managing to reach Delhi airport on an IAF cargo plane a day before. But the pleasant memories of his week-long trip are now a nightmare.

Their flight for Delhi was scheduled at 4 pm Sunday. To check the status of the flight, he made calls that remained unanswered. No phone lines were working, and there were few vehicles plying on the road. In order to get the status of the flight, he left the hotel to reach airport, some 10 kms away. On reaching airport by taxi, he learnt that the flight was on time, and rushed back to collect his family members. It was only after checking in that they learnt that the flight was cancelled.

Hundreds of people were sleeping at the airport, as several planes were cancelled. By the evening, Indian Air Force planes started landing, carrying relief materials. The officials told them they will be taken on the plane, but first priority will be given to people who have directly approached the Indian Embassy. Buses carrying around 200 people, several injured, arrived. After paperwork, they managed to board the plane at around 8 pm and reached Delhi at 9:30 pm, where representatives of NGOs and other volunteers were waiting to help them.

“In the time of crisis, we received help from numerous people, but some were also ready to fleece us, like taxi drivers insisting that we paid money in Indian currency which is valued more than Nepali rupee,” said Arpita. They managed to board the 6 am flight from Delhi to Vadodara.