Earthquake Survivor Stories: Ram Hari Giri

Name: Ram Hari Giri

Age: 50

Place: Sanga chowk, Sindhupalchowk

Total family members: 5, husband, wife, one daughter, two sons.

Relative with him: wife: Hira Maya Giri

Contact number: 9741034834, 9841968857

“It was during the first earthquake. My wife was in Balaju, Kathmandu at her mother’s place. One of my sons is in abroad. Another son used to study in Kathmandu. My daughter who has completed her plus two was with me in our old house.

In the morning I went to plant ginger. My daughter cooked food. We ate lunch. I then planned go to the field to see the corns and my daughter was to do other work (melma jaane). May be it was destined to meet the disaster that I did not like to go to the field. I went but watched the field from the road. The field was very green, beautiful, ready to harvest. I thought I will do further work when my wife returns. Then I went back home. I called my daughter, but she couldn’t hear me perhaps. She was upstairs with my nieces. They were four upstairs.

Later there was a blast downstairs. It was an old house where we used to live. The walls started falling apart but luckily everyone was safe. It’s just my leg and I don’t know how it got cut. It was as if a slipper was put on. In that matter the flesh tore off from my right leg. I was unconscious for a while, as if I was dead. Later I heard my daughter screaming, ‘Daddy I am dying. My breathing seems to stop. Please help me.’ Then I came to consciousness. She was buried underneath somewhere by the tin roof. I searched for her and started digging. I found her and carried her down on my shoulder.”