Where were you when the April 25 quake occurred? How did you react to it?

I was in Dharan with singer Rajesh Payal Rai. We were on the third floor of a hotel room. We had a programme the next day. All of sudden, the building started to shake. I ran out to the veranda. The intensity of the shaking increased and the building started to sway more violently. As soon as the quake stopped, we went to the Ghantaghar Park. There, somebody told me that Dharahara had collapsed. I started overhearing talks of how the entire Kathmandu Valley had been destroyed.

My wife, my 10-year-old son and my eight-year-old daughter were the only people in my mind then. I was so worried, and on top of that, I was having a difficult time getting across to them on the phone. Finally, after half an hour, I found out that they were fine. Only then was I relieved.

We heard that you lost some near and dear ones in Sindupalchok to the quake.

I returned to my hometown on the third day after the Great Quake. It was a terrible experience. Jyamire Ward no-7, which falls under the Phulping Dada VDC, is my village. When I got there, none of the houses were upright—everything was destroyed. I was the first person from outside to reach there and people were relieved to see me. Most people in the village are poor and the quake has made it worse for them.

My maternal uncle was buried under the rubble when the earthquake hit. So many other people, along with their cattle, were buried and nobody was able to save them.

I had taken some noodles and biscuits with me, which I distributed among the local children. The situation was unbearable. I also handed over a sum of Rs 16,000 from my pocket as many people didn’t have anything to eat.  

Have you been following up on your village’s condition after the first visit?

Our village had 135 houses, all of which were damaged by the quake. Luckily, I came in contact with the Dhapasi Jaycees. The Simara Red Cross had also provided them with rice, beaten rice, edible oil, salt and tarpaulin to be distributed in the needed areas. After my first visit to Jyamire after the shock, I came back to Kathmandu and took the relief material—provided by Dhapasi Jaycees—to my village.  I also contacted the Embassy of Bangladesh in Nepal and requested them to help. They provided relief material to the village soon after.  

Bande Gaun, a village next to ours is a settlement of 130 Majhi people. Their situation was similar to ours.  The LG Association in Hong Kong had sent relief material for Jyamire, but we sent it to Bande Gaun as our village had received some relief already.

Any particularly touching stories in the district you encountered?

At Bode village, I saw an 11-year-old-boy who was performing his father’s 13th-day funeral rites—his head was shaven. His house was intact, although the walls were cracked in several places. I knew his father when he was alive. He was a priest by profession. On April 25, he had gone to perform a ritual at a neighbour’s place. The house had come down and he was buried in the debris. I felt very bad.

You have been bringing smiles to the people in the affected areas with your stand-ups. How challenging is it to make people laugh in such a difficult time?

Till date, I have visited many quake-affected areas, taking relief materials along with me. Besides that, I have been trying to make people laugh—with the hope of helping them overcome the fear—through my stand-up shows. I’ve created a new performance routine after the quake: I always start out by sharing my own experience and tell people about what all I’ve lost. That way, I think, people can relate to me better as we all have someone or something that we have lost to the quake. Along with my own sorrow, I also tell people about the pain that my fellow villagers at Jyamire have gone through. I try to remind them that it is not just a single person who is suffering, but that this is a tragedy that the whole country—and humankind—is going through.

Then, I tell them how important it is to try and move ahead together. For this, I add a little bit of humour. I don’t think my performances have made anybody uncomfortable or hurt till now, but I am always willing to stop if people don’t like what I am doing during the shows. As artists, it is important for us to be sensitive towards our audience’s feelings. But in every show I have done after the quake, people have always encouraged me to do what I do best—that’s probably because they understand that, as a comedian, it is my work and responsibility to make them laugh and help them forget their sorrow, even if it is just for a short period of time.