OK;
thus we conclude p2 can't be read without
modifying latch contents.the method reccomended consists of a p2 shadow.now the real problem starts when running task is
preempted by higher priority task that also modifies p2.the solution(which is same for accssing any shared area)is:
1.keep p2 shadow as reccomended say in r7 which IS a static variable in my code.
2.all p2 read/write should be as:

clr ea
;load p2 from r7(mov p2,r7)
;write/read in/from xram
;update pointer(change reflected in r7 not p2)
setb ea
thus task programmer can maintain a dual pointer on his own.
does it sound ok?
regards
pranav