Nepal flood: Padma Shri awardee Shankar cancelled Kailash pilgrimage at son’s insistence days before disaster

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 27 (IANS) For architect and Padma Shri awardee G. Shankar, the devastating flash floods and glacial avalanche that struck the Nepal-Tibet border have turned a cancelled pilgrimage into a deeply unsettling wait for news.

Shankar was scheduled to undertake the Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage with the Mohanji Foundation, travelling through the same Himalayan route that has now been devastated by the disaster.

His itinerary was to take him to Kathmandu on August 22, followed by three days at Manasarovar and a stay at Saga to acclimatise to the high-altitude climate before proceeding to Darchen.

But he never made the journey.

In a Facebook post written amid the unfolding tragedy, Shankar said his son had strongly insisted that he and his wife should not travel.

The couple ultimately cancelled their trip on August 21, just days before the disaster struck the route.

“There were 145 people in our group. Even after getting all the visas, I ultimately did not go,” Shankar wrote.

“Finally, my son insisted that my wife and I should not go.” What makes the situation particularly distressing for him is that this is not an unfamiliar landscape.

Shankar said he has worked with agencies in Nepal and is well acquainted with the country’s topography.

He was therefore aware of the challenges posed by the Himalayan terrain and the vulnerability of routes running through its narrow valleys.

Now, people he knows are travelling through the region, and he is anxiously waiting for news.

Around 100 members of the group were foreigners, according to Shankar.

The first batch had already crossed into China and begun the parikrama around Mount Kailash, while he was supposed to travel with the second batch.

The group had spent nearly two months preparing for the pilgrimage.

His post captures the disturbing proximity between an ordinary pilgrimage itinerary and an extraordinary natural disaster; Saga, Darchen and the Kailash-Manasarovar route are now names being mentioned alongside rescue operations and missing-person searches.

The disaster struck on Wednesday when a massive surge of water, mud, rocks and debris swept through the Bhote Koshi corridor in Nepal’s Rasuwa district near the Tibet border.

River levels reportedly rose by as much as nine metres within half an hour.

The scale of the tragedy has continued to grow. Nepalese authorities have reported more than 150 deaths, while hundreds remain unaccounted for, including foreign tourists and pilgrims.

More than 100 Indians are among those reported missing, with many travelling towards Kailash Manasarovar.

For Shankar, however, the numbers have a very personal meaning.

They include people who were travelling with groups similar to the one he was meant to join and people he knows. “I have not travelled, but I am anxious to know about what happened there,” he said.

His Facebook post ends not with an explanation, but with a plea: “Pray… for mercy.”

And somewhere between a son’s insistence, a journey cancelled at the last moment and a Himalayan disaster that struck days later lies the haunting question of how close a person can sometimes come to tragedy without ever knowing it.

–IANS

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