‘I saw the road in front of me vanish within seconds’

By Shekhar Biswas
The day was to be a scorcher. Dark clouds hung precariously on the sky. The heart was racing. Mt Everest had drawn me back the second time.
This time, I am accompanied by an unlikely bunch – a family from Chennai and their relatives from the US. A 20-something year old girl, Nithya Reddy, decided to accompany her father Suresh Chirla Reddy for the trip of her life.Joining them are their relatives from the US who are here to conquer their limits, the oldest among them being 68-year-old. Together, we began the seminal journey of our lives – we were aware that the terrain would try and break us piece by piece – first our bodies and then our mind. We were, however, prepared for everything that came our way and ready to stomp on all adversity and move forward.
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We had arrived in Lukla airport from Kathmandu and walked gingerly on the almost flat terrain to Phakding. The real feel of Sagarmatha National Park’s harshness was to begin on Sunday – the drastic elevation from Phakding to Namche Bazar was to become an indicator that the road ahead wasn’t going to be easy. It would challenge us with every step.
A huffed prayer, therefore, was destined. And the walk began. The winding roads began to swirl and the raging river below huffed and puffed. Three hours into our expedition, the sweat hanging heavy from our brow, a jolt suddenly shook us like a pendulum. In a second, the ground beneath our feet split open, the houses in front collapsed to the ground like a pack of cards, mules carrying ration screamed in fear and went around in circles as boulders flew like meteors with a deadly intent. I screamed out “earthquake earthquake” and rushed to take shelter under a protruding rock with our rucksacks held over our head.
Our heads twirled as the earth shook with a ferocity that could break human courage. Almost a good half an hour later, we stepped out to see destruction and debris line our path. We reached Monzo – a small resting stop for mountaineers on their way to conquer the world’s mightiest mountains.
To our horror, the hut we were to stay in was now in ruins, every brick pulled out from the bone. We finally managed shelter in a nearby house which too had glaring cracks all over it. The night was long and uncertain. The next day, it was clear. It would be foolish to go any further. Those who were already in Namche bazaar started to run down towards us as news of the deadly avalanche at the Everest base camp and the carnage it had caused floated through thin air.
Mountains, however serene, are dangerous places to be. Crevasses open up with the slightest brushing of tectonic plates while avalanches can be triggered by a slight scream or a harmless cough. Imagine what a tremor of this, magnitude could have done?
We then started to walk back to Phakding. Two hours later, the nightmare had returned to haunt us. The earth shook once again – another earthquake with almost equal intensity resulted in landslides all around. In minutes, the road ahead of us was history. We took a detour and finally reached Phakding.
We have at present taken shelter in a log house. Eyes fear to shut, alert for any shaking of the earth. I keep trying to call home all day only for luck to run out.
We spend all day talking to fellow mountaineers who are returning from the base camp or higher altitudes. Namche Bazar has been shut and people have moved into open tents. Endless cups of tea and a depleting quantity of chowmein, dal and rice is keeping us from being hungry.
We have been told to stay put here and not go to Lukla where the airport is being used to transport the dead.
I have just one plea – hope the living too get a ride back to their homes along with the dead.