The author’s meeting with Norbu.

The author had almost lost hope and felt absolutely helpless as the town seemed so mundane with no pilgrims or visitors, despite it was the season of Kora. Only the locals were busy carrying their daily activities of playing pool or ladies washing their head in the icy water. It was all very disappointing for the author. Besides, now that Tsetan had also left, he wondered how will he be able to communicate with anyone in English. He was not prepared to complete the Kora on his own. He did not even know if the snow is cleared and had no body to answer him this simple question. The author was sitting in the café when a man walks up to him. Recognising the language in the book he is reading, he asks the author if he was English. The author reckoned that the man was not from the region as he wore a windcheater and metal-rimmed spectacles of a western style. The man told his name was Norbu and he worked in Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in the Institute of Ethnic Literature. He as well had come to do the Kora. He had been writing academic papers about the Kailash Kora and its importance in various works of Buddhist literature for many years. They both were equally ill-equipped and were ideal companions for the expedition.