Wellington: Dreams of a better life might have forced Mamta Khanal to stay put in New Zealand along with her husband, but her heart seems to be 12,000 km away: Longing to be with her three-year-old son Prashith back in her native Nepal.

Their lives, as of thousands of others from Nepal, have been turned topsy-turvy by the April 25 earthquake of 7.9 magnitude, which damaged the family house in Kathmandu, where their son lives with his grandparents.