Abode of the Clouds Day 0: Background

It all started when my oldest friend got a DSLR. Discussing photography with him and giving him tips on how to shoot got me thinking about my own dormant DSLR. It has been quite some time since it had gotten a good work out. It was time to start clicking again. With this in mind, I searched for active photowalk groups in Bangalore. I was already part of Bangalore Photowalk but it hadn’t been pretty active in the near past. My search made me come across another group Photowalk Bangalore and without hesitation; I joined their whatsapp group using the invite link. The group had pretty strict guidelines regarding what could be posted there. I was content with being a passive participant for now. Then one day, a group member posted about a 4 day trip to Meghalaya organized by Photographers of India. Poor guy got blasted by the group admin for posting links to events outside the photowalk Bangalore group. But that message sparked something in me.  Meghalaya – The abode of the clouds, the only thing I knew about that state is that it has the record for the highest rainfall ever recorded (courtesy: Standard VIII Geography text book). But somehow the name itself brought to mind a cool green paradise.

Next step was getting the necessary home office approvals. Getting the leaves would be comparatively easy but I felt that getting my better half to allow me a 5 day break from father and husband duties would take some doing.  That wasn’t the case to be. One evening, during some idle chit chat, I mentioned to her about this trip. The response was “You go ahead, if you want to go”. Although I couldn’t believe my ears at first, I took that was the green light and set about planning the logistics. The flights to and from Guwahati were the first on the list. Then the necessary formalities to be completed as instructed by the trip organizers, finally came the requisite shopping to be done for the essentials. It was time to dust off my trusty pair of Merrel shoes and get my photographers vest cleaned up.

Meanwhile Photographers of India (Instagram: @photographers.of.india) kept me updated via mails and the whatsapp group on what to expect from the trip. The description of the trip sent across excited me and at the same time scared my shoes off – Climb down 3600 steps? Really? Somehow I pushed it to the back of my mind and just focused on getting myself to Guwahati. This would be my first solo trip since my two week North Indian sojourn before my marriage.

My flight from Bangalore was at 5:55 AM on 13^th April. There came the first choice to be made. What time should I get to the airport? Should I stay at home, get up at 2:00 AM, get ready and proceed to the airport by 3:00 AM? Would I be able to get cabs at that time in the night? Would I get enough sleep? Would I wake up on time? Another option was to leave home by 10:30, Reach the airport by around midnight, catch around 4 hours of sleep there, wake up, get freshened up and proceed with the boarding formalities. The more I thought about it, more sense the latter option made to me. I didn’t want to think too much so finally decided to go with Option 2. 13^th night came; I was all packed and prepped up, saying my good byes. An Ola cab was waiting to take me to the airport. Being night time, it hardly took me 45 min to reach the sprawling Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore. All that was left was to find a comfortable place to park myself and shut my eyes for a few hours before I could awake into the first day of a much awaited journey.