Forty-year-old Hari Prasad Mainali went missing in the Rasuwa floods

From Onlinekhabar English

Forty-year-old Hari Prasad Mainali went missing in the Rasuwa floods. His fate remained unknown after he was caught in the flood on August 26. After many days of search operations with no results and hope of his return faded, the family had to give up hope that Hari Prasad would come back. Since his body was never found, the family performed his last rites using a symbolic effigy made of kush grass. But amid the pain of losing a loved one, the Mainali family faced another problem: a lack of space to perform the mourning rites (kriya). According to Hari Prasad’s brother Hem Chandra, most of the mourning-rite houses in Kathmandu’s Tarakeshwar area were full. The municipality then allowed the family to use an under-construction mourning-rite building temporarily, where they are now staying to complete the rites. “There’s already the pain of losing someone close to us, and on top of that, finding a place to sit in mourning was a huge struggle. Most places were full. Right now we’re staying in an under-construction building to perform the rites,” Hem Chandra says. Hari Prasad’s family’s situation has now become a common problem for many families who lost relatives in the disaster.