Earthquake and Art
My name is Sushma Joshi, and I am a writer and filmmaker from Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2015, I was buried in the earthquake in Mangal Hiti, in an old mediaval town of Kathmandu. You can read the article I wrote about my experience here . A crowd of people came and rescued me. My ankle and arm were broken in the process. A friend of mine from Sudan, who was visiting Germany, mailed me some colored pens and chocolate as a get-well present. I was still lying in bed, unable to get up. Slowly, I started to make paintings and that helped me with my recovery. A friend who came to visit me told me: "I hope you rise from the ashes like the Phoenix." Still later, an American friend of mine bought me watercolors and watercolor paper and I painted more paintings about my experience. At first, I was painting just to express what had happened to me--including the fears and pain of a near-death experience.