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KATHMANDU \u2013 Dipti Bhatnagar\u2019s birthday is on Aug 26, but this year the joyous occasion turned tragic. Her sister Shubakshi Rawla, 49, and her husband Sumit Rawla, 53, both of whom are Singaporean, were reported missing in the devastating flash flood that struck northern Nepal<\/span><\/a> and Tibet<\/span><\/a> that day.<\/p>\n The couple were on their way to Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and last reported to be in or around Timure, a Nepali town close to the border with Tibet. The hotel where they had spent the previous night \u2013 Hotel Kailash in Gatte Khola near Timure \u2013 has reportedly been washed away in a torrent of mud and rocks.<\/p>\n The last few days have been a \u201cliving nightmare\u201d for Bhatnagar, who has tried every possible means to trace her sister and brother-in-law. She flew in from New Delhi with her brother Khushal Abrol, 42, and landed in Kathmandu on Aug 28 to intensify their search.<\/p>\n \u201cI want someone to really slap me and wake me up from this dream,\u201d she said, seated in the lobby of their hotel in the Nepali capital.<\/p>\n But the siblings have refused to give up hope, looking at every possibility of locating the couple.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to take that one per cent chance; maybe someone (still) has that last breath,\u201d Bhatnagar, 45, told The Straits Times.<\/p>\n The brother-sister duo have been running pillar to post in Kathmandu, meeting officials from the Nepali government, foreign embassies and Sagar Pandey, founder of Himalayan Glaciers, the travel agency the Rawlas were travelling with.<\/p>\n There has been no news of the couple\u2019s whereabouts or that of the 40-plus other individuals who were part of the Himalayan Glaciers group making its way to Tibet.<\/p>\n Pandey told ST that he last spoke to the guide who was with the group at 8am on Aug 26. They were having breakfast at Hotel Kailash at Gatte Khola, near the friendship bridge to Tibet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hotel was totally destroyed in the floods,\u201d said Pandey, clearly shaken.<\/p>\n The tragedy is personal to him. Also missing are his two Nepali cousins and staff in the group of 47 that included tourists from Singapore, Australia and Canada as well.<\/p>\n