‘Shiva saved us’: Son of Indian-American couple recounts moment when his mother called after surviving deadly Nepal flood
Vikram Ravi, the son of the Indian-American couple from California who went on a pilgrimage to Tibet, said it was nothing but a miracle that his parents were safe and he was immensely grateful for this miracle. His parents Anjana Raja and Pattabiram Venkatesan were with their tour bus when they saw the mountain of water coming down. Ravi said he was in his bed chilling when his mother called and her first words were: ‘Shiva saved us,” as she was crying. Anjana Raja described the avalanche as a tsunami to Ravi before the frightening videos took over social media.“It’s like 60, 70 feet, it looked like a tsunami, but dark black,” Venkatesan told CBS News. “… I could see this monster thing coming down. At that point I didn’t know if it was water. I thought it was fire, forest fire, honestly.”Anjana said she grabbed her husband by the collar, pulled him and said ‘Run’ and they jumped off the bus. “Along the way, you know, houses were coming down, it was bringing down homes,” Venkatesan said. “I saw death right in front of my eyes,” Raja said. A guide led them up to a flat area at the top of a nearby mountain. The climb was treacherous. “So high up, I don’t even know how we climbed,” Raja said. “It was really hard.”Venkatesan described the climb as “narrow and so slippery,” with “mud and stones and rocks and everything.”They spent that night in a goat shed with several other survivors, including local residents and tourists, and were airlifted out the following day. Everyone on the tour bus survived, they said.Ravi told CNN that he was relieved that his parents could speak to him and inform him that they were fine and that he did not have to look for them. “I am going to tell my children to take life seriously and be ready for whatever comes,” Anjana said the first thing she would do after coming back home is to hug their children.
