KATHMANDU, April 19 -- Suresh Shakya (above) was sitting down for lunch with his family in his house in Itum Bahal four years ago when there was a terrifying, subterranean growl, and his building started shaking.
Shakya, 46, knew it was an earthquake, and while he was concerned the house could collapse, he was even more afraid that an adjacent, new 10-floor highrise that a neighbour had built would topple on him.
Outside, it was difficult to stand as the ground rolled. An hour later, there was a big aftershock and Shakya remembers the tall building swaying like a tree in a storm, creating deep gashes on his house, which remains propped up by timber to this day.
Seismologists warn that the quake four years ago this month was just a warn...