sleeping with a stranger!

Its almost 3.30am, and we,15 of us mostly women at Ardhakuwari shrine, half way to the vaishnodevi shrine. the trek to ardhkuwari had lasted 3 hours, and when we had reachd there, we were warm.

But immediately it begins to get cold. i first put on my scarf, a little later my sweater comes on, a little more later, the gloves, and then in sheer desperation, wrap the shawl tighterr...others dont seem to be faring as badly as me, at least they are not saying anything....

the pricients of the temple is filled with 1000s of sleeping bodies huddled inside thick blankets...i just want some place to crash, but there seems no visible land left at all,just blankets blankets everywhere...three of us spot an empty iron bench, and we decide to sit sleep on the bench..its better than the floor, we decide...and do close our very tired eyes...but there is just no escaping the cold...the iron bench feels like an ice bed...luckily some kind soul tells us that we cud collect blankets from teh authorities, for a deposit of 100 bucks...

we manage to get three blankets,.the blankets look like they are are 1000 years old, i almost imagine that they wud have never been washed since some textile company would have manufacured them a million of years ago...i wonder if it wud have contained some baby's drool, or poop, or vomit, or even some night discharge...but the cold immediately throws away all thoughts of hygiene to rest. and then we shift base to the concrete ground..it seems less colder and hence more inviting than the iron bench.

i want to tell my two friends to cuddle sleep..but i dont, cause i dont find them fretting as much about the cold..i lie next to a stranger...the stranger is covered from head to toe, in a similar looking blanket.i cant make out whether the stranger is a man or a woman ..i sigh as i wrap my shawl and blanket, more tightly around my body,to ward off the evil cold, but it doesnt help much..i toss and turn, im even half asleep i think, but the cold doesnt let me go into dreamworld that easy..i somehw start feeling that my blood is congealing, or tht my heart is freezing...

ah, i miss a pillow...if only i had a pillow, i moan, half asleep, i wud feel fine...suddenly, i see that the person next to me has a pillow, and more importantly, the person is using just half of it..i snuggle close to the pillow,rest my head onto it, and zzzzzzzzzz sleep tightly...

and thats how i slept with a stranger, that night at ardhakuwari! :P

PS..my friend told me later, that it was a kid whom i shared the pilow with!