Kalikasthan (rasuwa), Sept. 5 -- Two seconds is time enough to blink. For 31-year-old Sudip Kumar Neupane, this window meant the difference between life and death.

Sudip was racing back on a motorcycle after warning villagers of an approaching flood when buffaloes slowed him down by an estimated two seconds.

Then a torrent of flood and debris came.

As mud and rock and water barrelled down, carrying away his 27-year-old younger brother, Pradip, and Janak, an information technology officer in Uttargaya Rural Municipality in Rasuwa whom Neupane regarded as a cousin.

Sudip survived, only to be haunted by the question of why he lived when the two men beside him did not.

His survival by a whisker means a life tormented by the disaster. Muc...