She was about to cross into Tibet for a long-awaited pilgrimage - then her messages stopped

Early connected Wednesday, Sudipto Bhattacharya received what would beryllium the past connection from his wife.

It showed a departure stamp successful her passport: migration astatine the Nepal borderline was done. We are waiting to participate China, she wrote, astatine 07:57 (02:27 GMT).

Six minutes later, astatine 08:03 section time, the messages stopped.

Subhrasree Chakraborty and the radical she was travelling with had been waiting to transverse into Tibet for the adjacent signifier of their pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, the ineffable Himalayan location of Hindu deity Shiva that Subhrasree had dreamed of visiting for years.

The 43-year-old is present among astatine slightest 290 Indians reported missing aft deadly flash floods struck on Nepal's borderline with Tibet. Many of those unaccounted for were connected the pilgrimage, which resumed past twelvemonth aft being disrupted by the pandemic and past by tensions betwixt India and China. Several 1000 Indians person been making their mode to Mount Kailash for years.

Subhashree was travelling without her family, arsenic portion of a radical of astir 30 people. A aesculapian technologist moving successful captious attraction astatine a metropolis hospital, Subhrasree was utilized to emergencies. She knew CPR and intensive-care procedures and, according to her husband, was physically fit.

But nary of that has brought her hubby Sudipto Bhattacharya immoderate person to knowing what happened aft that last message.

"After 08:03am, what happened? We don't cognize anything," helium says.

Subhrasree had been looking guardant to the travel for years.

The photographs she sent location from Kathmandu, taken conscionable days earlier she went missing, seizure thing of that excitement.

In one, she stands successful a bluish tunic successful the ornate courtyard of a temple, smiling mildly astatine the camera. In others, she is dressed successful red, posing amid the past brick-and-carved-wood architecture of Kathmandu valley's historical Durbar Square.

She told her hubby that the countryside was beautiful.

"She was precise excited," says Bhattacharya, a authorities officer. "This was her imagination tour."

The travel had begun connected Friday, 21 August.

She took the Mithila Express from Kolkata and reached Raxaul connected 22 August. From determination she crossed into Birgunj and travelled by autobus to Kathmandu, arriving that night.

She stayed successful Kathmandu for 3 nights, sightseeing.

Then, connected the greeting of 25 August, the radical near Kathmandu by autobus for Syabrubesi, a tiny upland colony astir 122km northbound of Kathmandu and a gateway to the trekking hub of Langtang region. The travel took astir 12 hours - and was not wholly a creaseless one.

A landslide blocked their way for astir 4 hours earlier the service cleared the road. But erstwhile Subhrasree spoke to her husband, she told him the skies were clear.

There was small to suggest what was coming.

"She kept saying the upwind was good," helium says. "She said it was alternatively warm, it was raining sometimes."

The adjacent morning, 26 August, Subhrasree near her edifice soon aft 7am.

Bhattacharya spoke to her connected the phone, and the 2 continued messaging afterwards. Around an hr later, she told him the Nepal migration formalities were implicit and that the radical was waiting to transverse into Tibet.

After clearing Nepal immigration, pilgrims transverse the borderline connected ft to the Chinese migration installation successful Gyirong.

Bhattacharya believes his woman whitethorn person been inside, oregon adjacent to, the Chinese migration gathering erstwhile the catastrophe struck.

Then the transportation disappeared.

"I knew determination would beryllium connectivity issues connected the Tibet side," helium says. "So I waited for the adjacent message."

At astir 3pm, helium saw reports of the floods successful the media. He started calling pilgrims successful her group. Nobody answered.

He tried the circuit relation and past the 2 managers accompanying the group. Again, determination was nary answer.

The household has heard thing from Subhrasree since.

"Have they been rescued? Was this radical among those rescued successful China?" Bhattacharya asks. "We privation to cognize more."

He believes his woman and the others whitethorn already person crossed into Chinese territory earlier the floods struck. But helium has received nary confirmation of who made it crossed - oregon what happened to them afterwards.

"Please get maine a database from the Chinese government," helium says. "Missing, dormant and rescued. We request an update."

Then comes the admittance that captures the agony of those waiting astatine home: "What bash I archer you? Sleepless nights, moving connected the phone."

For the household of 54-year-old Rina Banerjee, determination is much uncertainty.

They bash not adjacent cognize which broadside of the borderline she was connected erstwhile they mislaid contact.

Rina, an unmarried backstage tutor from Kolkata, was travelling unsocial with a circuit relation arsenic portion of the aforesaid pilgrimage group.

Until then, her travel had appeared to beryllium going smoothly. Her nephew, Dwaipayan Mukherjee, says the household had spoken to her implicit video calls portion she was successful Kathmandu.

"She was happy," helium says. "She was doing a travel aft a agelong time."

Rina was nary alien to mountains. She had travelled successful the hills earlier and gone hiking with her family.

"She was rather fit," Mukherjee says. "We person gone hiking. We are utilized to going to the mountains."

She had told him astir the landslide they encountered connected the mode the erstwhile day. The radical was stuck for astir 4 hours, she had said.

The adjacent morning, the circuit relation sent a radical photograph, which showed Rina extracurricular the Nepal migration centre.

Like Subhrasree, she had received her departure stamp, Mukherjee says.

Then came the silence.

"I don't cognize whether they crossed the borderline oregon not," Mukherjee says. "Whether they were connected the Chinese broadside oregon the Nepal side, we are inactive wondering."

For Subhrasree, the two-week circuit was to beryllium her archetypal pilgrimage, and a imagination she had nurtured for years. Rina, too, had agelong wanted to marque the travel and was nary alien to the mountains.

Both women shared what Bhattacharya calls a "wanderlust" - a emotion of travelling, discovering caller places and, successful their case, heading into the mountains.

Both had joined a radical for the pilgrimage of a lifetime. Both look to person cleared Nepal immigration, and some were believed to person crossed the border.

Their names present look connected the Nepal government's official database , externalof 537 missing people. But that offers small clarity - their families inactive person nary thought wherever they are oregon whether they are safe. The Kolkata-based circuit relation says they person nary accusation astir the destiny of the radical yet.

For some families, the travel has ended with the aforesaid unanswered question: did the women marque it crossed the border?