In October 1991 I was in the Garhwal Himalayas when an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale killed more than a thousand people and flattened tens of thousands of houses. Since that experience, I have lived in my Himalayan village in fearful anticipation of the "big one" — the massive earthquake long predicted in this seismically unstable zone.
In periodic nightmares, I see entire hillsides, fecklessly deforested and covered with cement, collapsing into the deep valley. The heartbreaking images from Nepal, a country that has grown familiar and cherished over several visits, rekindle that fear.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal last weekend was far from being the big one. Still, it reportedly killed more than 4,000 people, and damaged large parts of Kathmandu. Since news from the rural parts of the country, where millions live precariously, has been scarce, the true scale of the devastation is yet unknown.