Three relatives of Tara Thapa Magar had travelled to work in one of the affected districts before the disaster struck Nepal. There has been no news of them since the flash floods. Their phones are switched off and they cannot be contacted. No one in the family knows where they are or how they are.

Sitting in Chattogram, Tara is spending every moment in anxiety. She said, “I have no idea whether my three relatives are alive or dead. I am sitting here, far from my country, simply waiting. What could be more helpless than this?”

Twenty-year-old Tara is a final-year student in the Department of Public Health at the Asian University for Women in Chattogram. Her home is in Khanda Devi Municipality of Ramechhap district, Nepal. She spoke to Prothom Alo on Thursday evening. Tara said, “I am terrified and worried. I never imagined anything this horrific could happen.”