In Mumbai, Sonal keeps opening WhatsApp to look at her sister’s last-seen status. Chetna Gupta, 64, had left the city on August 23 for the Mansarovar Yatra with Richa Travels, part of a tour group of more than 50 people. On the morning of August 25, when their mother spoke with her around 7:30 am, Chetna said she was on her way through customs clearance. That was the last conversation anyone in the family had with her. 

Chetna is one of at least 320 Indians who remain unaccounted for after a flash flood and landslide struck near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26. In Mumbai, in Bengaluru, in homes across the country, families are living inside that number now – dialling helplines that give no new answers. A few have flown to Nepal, to look for their own people among the injured and the unclaimed.

Chetna’s son, brother, and brother-in-law are among them. They are in Kathmandu now, cycling through hospitals, asking after everyone who has come in since the disaster. Sonal, still in Mumbai, said “it’s an extremely difficult time for all of us”. 

“There is a lot of restlessness. I can’t even describe what we are going........

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