Stranded across the Rohtang

It was the second week of October when we packed up in a Gypsy (a small jeep with 4WD). I had never been across the Rohtang pass earlier. The minute we crossed the pass, my heart came to a stand still!

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!! As the terrain changed, we could not stop saying 'WOW'!!!! We had never seen anything like this before. I could NEVER imagine a place like this...never in my dreams! It was mountains and it was a desert.

The etchings on the mountainside were beautiful but the plateaus came as a big surprise to us! I come from Darjeeling - there anything flat is automatically converted in to a soccer field, as there is no flat land there! That portion of the Himalayas is very compact.

We spent the night in Kaza at the Milarepa guesthouse. The owner was a kind man. His wife made some delicious meal (which I can still taste!).
The only bad thing in the whole setting was that each village in Spiti had a Dish antenna, broadcasting TV soaps like ‘Baywatch’ and ‘The bold and the beautiful’ to the innocent people of Spiti.

The owner also informed us that the electricity supply was very good in Spiti and each village was assigned a time when their supply would be cut off – this helps the locals prepare in time for the duration of the power cut. I wish power cuts in Delhi were more scheduled like that!

The weather was beautiful and the night sky was so clear! We had to force ourselves to go to the bed.

At dinnertime, Capt. Zadu took out his wonder drug ' The Po-Chai pills'!!! He had few and gave few to my father - they were feeling the altitude a bit. I didn't know how high we were at.

Soon, the calmness of the night was disturbed by the sound of people snoring away to glory!