A year later in Nepal

People light 9,000 candles, one for each of the people killed in the earthquake, to mark its anniversary at the Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu on Sunday. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

A year after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake ravaged Nepal, there is an odd predicament in the country: the only people who are happy are the ones who aren’t connected to the mainstream. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

A little girl lights candles at the Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu on Sunday. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Around 8,00,000 houses, including hundreds of school buildings, had collapsed due to the twin earthquakes of April 25 and May 12 that hit as many as 14 districts of Nepal. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

As many as 4,98,697 households were entirely destroyed, and another 2,56,617 partially destroyed, when an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Nepal on April 25 last year. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The most valuable objects in his tent are a wooden cupboard placed at the front, a gas stove and a sewing machine lying at the back. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The 26-year-old worked as a taxi driver in Khokundol in Sindhupalchok, about 110 km from Kathmandu. When the quake struck, he, his wife and a year-old daughter, along with six others, had been out in the mountains looking for a herb known locally as a magic drug for “strengthening immunity”. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Laxman says he received Nepali Rs 25,000 each from two separate NGOs, one of them Japanese. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The family of seven shares a tent, with a double-bed mattress serving as a combined bed. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

“We received NRs 15,000 from the government and another NRs 15,000 from an NGO,” Lopsang says. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The worry topmost on their minds is their children’s education, and the subject of their meeting today is the crowded local school their children attend.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Mingmar Sherpa lives in a tent with his wife and an infant son, but Mingmar says he couldn’t be happier. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The son, Tenzin Somgpo Sherpa, now three months old, was born at the camp. “This is his home,” wife Lamu says. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

As Lamu adds, laughing, since the quake, Mingmar hasn’t needed to work. “We were given NRs 9,600 by Myanmar and about NRs 20,000 by our relatives,” she says. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

When one by one, the others affected by the quake in their village Tatopani in Sindhupalchok left, Nami Sherpa, 31, and her family hung back.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

“As people started leaving, whatever aid workers came our way went elsewhere too, seeing the deserted villages,” she says.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Local try and pick up pieces and still try to repair their homes. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

On Monday, the anniversary of the quake, the children will return to school. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

In the year since the tents came up on the land, the owner of the land has served them three notices to evict.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Those living in tents say their relatives will flood back to these temporary quarters when monsoon arrives, afraid that the loose mud from last year’s quake will slide down in their villages.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

A two-centuries-old building, with generations of construction showing through motifs of metallic deities on windows sills, and wood and mud around bricks, tilts precariously on to the street. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Balloons of all sizes and colours floated past Durbar Square in Kathmandu Saturday as Nepal began commemorative ceremonies to remember the nearly 9,000 who perished on April 25 last year. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

People in Nepal release balloons in memory of those who died in last year’s devastating earthquake in Kathmandu on Saturday. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Homes bore the brunt of the 7.8 earthquake on April 25, while the aftershocks — a 6.9 the next day and 7.3 on May 12 — felled the remaining shaky houses still standing.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

An old lady seen in front of her house ruined by the earthquake. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

In other parts of Kathmandu, in Chuchepati, Chabahil and Naya Basti, Boudha, there are hundreds still living in tents, as the homes or the facilities haven’t been restored.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The odd family dynamics stopped worrying Lopsang, 33, long back. They moved in just 15 days after the quake, after their village Pakip in Sindhupalchok was hit by the quake. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

The Naya Basti camp has more than 60 families living in tents. Most of them belong to Sindhupalchok district, 110 km from Kathmandu. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

In Bhaktapur, 15 km outside Kathmandu, the sense of loss and grief has given way to deep worry as people come to terms with the grim reality of their little world.(Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Nearly a year later, just 641 people have received reconstruction grants for homes. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)