Stuck in Pooh

next morning we got up late.. since we had decided to wait for a confirmation of the road opening, there was no hurry.. the hotel chaukidaar told us that there was no water so the morning necessities had to be carried outside on the road. Shitting in open with ice all around and then wiping your ass with ice is an experience I pray you never have to go through.
even the river was frozen..

our guest house..

then we went to the town to find out about the road conditions. there we had a delicious thupka and momo lunch.. looks tempting, doesn't it!!



People said that the road ahead was open and we even saw many cars leaving. but we did not share their confidence and we decided to wait for a day more. we came back to the room. today there was electricity, so finally after carrying it around for almost 10 days, we used the laptop. after transferring the photos from the camera to the laptop we started watching the latest episode Of top gear. then we went to the Pooh town to get some petrol. There was a marriage procession going on in the town. Chalo at least some people are happy in this ungodly weather. There is no petrol pump in Pooh. only petrol available is that stored by shopkeepers. So the petrol here is sold Rs.10 more than the market value, not much i would say. We bought 10 litres, enough to get us comfortably to the proper petrol pump at Powari which was 58 kms away. We came back and started a movie. In between the movie a person from the guest house staff knocked on our door and said that there was a call for Manik. This was very very surprising for us. we had not been able to contact our parents since we called them from Sumdo 3 days ago. there was no way they could have known we were in Pooh. we quickly rushed to the kitchen. the phone there only had local outgoing and obviously incoming from anywhere. to our absolute surprise, it turned out to be Salil!! he inquired about our well being and told us that our parents were worried and had called him. then he put my parents in conference and i was able to talk to them.. they seemed really worried.. the news channels had been forecasting snow storms and avalanches in Kinnaur and on top of that people all around were calling them and telling them about such reports.. damn the new channels!! there was not even a single cloud in sky and they were going on about how people were stuck in snow.. also so many people calling my parents was making the reports more believable and further increasing their fear.. why dont people first verify a news before spreading it around and troubling others!!! when we got over the initial shock of the call and the joy of talking to our parents, the question again came to our minds.. how the hell did Salil trace us?? i dont know where all he must have called, from who all he had gotten the numbers before he finally got to us in Pooh.. we really couldn't figure out how he could have done that.. and words can not describe how thankful we were to him.. this really proved to me that no matter where you go, people who care for you will find you..

we were in luck because immediately after we finished talking to our parents, the light went and with it the telephone connection. we came back to the room & waited for the dinner to be ready. after some time the light came back and we resumed our movie. at night the roof and the windows again shook under the pressure of the strong winds.. again i prayed that no landslide happens as i went to sleep.. tomorrow will be the next stretch of the trip.. lets hope we get out of this snow...


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