It was too much exercise for my knees
I have been trekking non-stop since Day 4. First it was from Tyrna to Nongriat, then from Nongriyat to “Paradise” and back, followed by a trek to caves and back and finally the ascension from Nongriat to Tyrna.
My knees were killing me. I could feel the discomfort initially that was a sure shot sign of ligament pain. By the time I was at Lumsomphie (the village before motorable road at Tyrna), I could no longer bend my right knee. As a result I was climbing slowly while Nandy and Gowri Sankar had moved ahead. Unfortunately, we took two different routes to Tyrna and we all wasted a lot of time and energy looking for each other. It was good that I had this photograph from yesterday.
Search photograph of Nandy and Gowri Sankar. I kept showing this to the villagers and asking them if they had seen these guys.
An old lady was able to point them to the place where I was waiting. By the time we had resolved this mishap, all the shared cabs were gone. We had to call up Tony and arrange for a reserved transportation back to Sohra.
The Russian (Dmitry) and the Finnish (Sakari) guy we met at Nongriat took a difficult trek route to Nohkalikai Falls and hitchhiked to Sohra. We had our lunch together and they moved ahead to Guwahati.
A crash course in Guitar Lessons
In the same backpacker’s hut were we were staying (By The Way at Sohra), I met a Polish guitarist called Greg. He had studied Performance Music formally and came to Heprit’s office / box office DVD rental shop when he heard me playing on Heprit’s guitar.
Heprit’s box office / DVD rental shop. Image courtesy: Gowri Sankar.
Heprit is a huge Bob Marley fan and wanted to learn One Love. His limitation was that he did not know any basic music theory and was still into open chords. He did not know the layout of the fretboard either. Greg ended up showing him the basics of reggae rhythm and chords and how he could practically play any rock, pop and reggae songs. In just two hours he explained Heprit many things in simple terms and drew diagrams of shapes and layout for his reference. I have never seen such a good guitar teacher till date. Most good guitarists I know are pretty bad teachers. This guy was amazing. At the end of the two hour session, Haprit could map and play basic chord progressions.
Greg came by when he heard me playing the guitar. It wasn’t my playing but the existence of a musical instrument that attracted him there. Image courtesy: Gowri Sankar.
Grzegorz Jakub Paszyński is currently involved with a Polish band called Microexpressions.
A visitor in our room
The roads were empty when we went out for our dinner. It felt like 2 O’Clock midnight in some rural part of Bangalore. Usually all shops close by 8-8:30 pm and it was already 8:30. We hoped for some food joint to remaining open. Fortunately, a few shops were still open. We had our dinner in one of those shops. We were the last customers. We got to know that the owner’s daughter studies in Bangalore. She even showed the address. It was somewhere in Preethi Nagar. We did not know where it was which surprised her. Nandy went on to explain that Bangalore is too huge and we don’t travel much from one pocket to another.
The roads were nearly empty. A small cluster of utility shops near police station was open.
There is an internet cafe, too (the centre shop). They do business just because 3G signal is the worst in this region. Surprisingly, banners of Airtel 3G are posted all over Sohra.
When we returned, I found a visitor in my room.
The cat was sleeping on Gowri Sankar’s bed. Gowri Sankar was too asleep to notice his bedmate.