When Hindi aided Tripura Guv after Mansarovar Yatra on I-Day

It was an Independence Day Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy would always remember, for it was this day in 1996 when snatches of conversation in Hindi guided him on their journey back from Kailash Mansarovar. "We (the yatris) were returning from the Chinese side and there was solid fog all around us. The air was so thick that you couldn't see the tip of your fingers," Roy recalled. The group of pilgrims to Mansarovar was walking towards the Lipulekh Pass when they found themselves lost in the fog.

"We had no idea where we were. But, as we were walking, we heard some people speaking in Hindi. That was when we realised we had reached India," the 72-year-old governor and former BJP leader from West Bengal said. It was August 15 that day, he said. "So it was wonderful," Roy said on the sidelines of a book launch here last evening. The high-altitude Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage spot is in the Tibet region.