In Jammu, parents wait for news of sons

Pandit Rikhi Ram, 60, and Padma Devi have not been able to contact their two sons since Saturday, with phone links down. Bharat, 29, is a manager at a Kathmandu hotel while Parkash, 25, is in a degree course there.

Rikhi Ram, a priest at a Jammu temple, had spoken to Parkash Saturday morning. “I called him. He told me he was preparing to go to college and would call in the evening,” says Rikhi Ram. The earthquake came half an hour later.

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Rikhi Ram has a third son in Nepal, Rohit, who is studying. Rohit, 19, is safe. Bharat is married with a five-year-old son and went to Nepal only last month after he got the job at a new hotel. His wife Pratima and their son have been staying with her parents at Ruderpur for the last six months.