It’s been a week since the devastating earthquake that left vast swathes of Kathmandu valley in shambles. Nearly all of Nepal’s magnificent antiquities bearing testimony to its unique culture and harking back to its history now lie in ruins a clutter of stones, bricks and wooden beams.

Thousands of houses, many in the old quarters of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, have either collapsed or tumbled over. In far-flung rural areas, survivors are yet to come to grips with the brutal reality that stares them in the face: their hovels and shacks are reduced to rubble, their tattered and torn possessions buried under what till last Saturday were their homes.