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The bus had hardly started from Shimla and I was already poking conductor every 2mins in order not to miss the stop and also because I was enjoying irritating him. As I finally reached Lakkar bazar, I hurriedly got down the bus and enquired about bus to Sangla. He said the bus had left !!!! Dejected as I turned with a puppy face, heard another bus driver shouting at me from far –“there's one more bus from a private service, it would come in another 5 min”. This is a peculiar thing about impromptu travel- you suffer several Panic-Attacks now and then and those are funny as you reflect on them sometime in future! I thanked him and was ready to fight with the huge crowd for my seat as soon as the bus arrived. I was lucky to get a seat and why not?- Iam from Hyderabad and APSRTC/TSRTC has had trained me well enough for it (227 No. Kompally RTC bus rides) ;). I asked the conductor for a ticket to Sangla. To my horror, he told that the bus might not go to Sangla. Panicked, I wondered if the battle for seat landed me up at wrong battle field and for a moment thought that I took some wrong bus. He clarified that the bus was correct but since there was a land slide the day before, they were not sure about the route being operational and were planning to stop at Rampur itself. Sangla was another 4 hrs from Rampur. I refused to accept that and it was clear on my face. Seeing my helpless face he pacified saying me he would confirm again in 2 hours. My main concern was I had my booking made at Chitkul and I badly needed to reach Chitkul that same night as I was clueless about my stay at any place midway and also there was no internet for me to manage anything ad-hoc. I was just hoping he'll say we will be going to Sangla after two hours. Meanwhile, my seat-mate Pooja Shukla, a Rampur resident who lived in Shimla was my savior that day. She had witnessed all of my animated discussion with the conductor and asked me where I was heading to. I said Chitkul! She said, I think you cannot reach Chitkul today, even if the bus goes to Sangla, u have to stay back in Sangla for tonight. I explained her about my bookings at Chitkul and that I couldn’t cancel it also. She said it's just a matter of lapsed booking and the travel in the night was not worth keeping life at stake. We started getting to know about each other and we kept on talking as two hours passed by unnoticed until the driver informed us that bus would be going to Sangla. The conversation was so intense that I now wished the bus never stopped and we kept on our conversation. I asked her if she knew any home stays in Sangla, she had a huge network which helped me get a room in a home stay at Sangla and at lesser price too. I took their contact numbers and address details to help myself after reaching Sangla. As my logistics were now sorted I realized that I had missed to notice all the beautiful landscapes around me till that time. Beautiful Apple orchards and the cherry stalls with about 5 types of cherries arranged skillfully caught my eyes and it was relaxing to my mind. Just then bus stopped for a tea break and we got down refreshing ourselves. It started to drizzle and what else could have been a better time to have tea also when you are accompanying a true die hard tea fan. She exclaimed how can you say no to tea that too when you are in Pahad? It's kind of energy drink for Pahadi people. What she said was true, a sip of tea after that long journey in hills and with a slight drizzle in the background was literally refreshment to body and soul. She got down at next stop but she helped me for whole of my trip whenever I reached out to her.