McLeod Ganj memoir - Day 4

As l sit here in the balcony of my room, a little spikey haired bird with a bright green chest sits at the top of the tree in front of me and keeps dangling its tail, occasionally chirping a tuk-tuk-tuk, almost as if responding to other chirpings that seem to echo from around the valley. Somewhere from a distance a flute-like bird sound intercepts the otherwise silence. Suddenly, l hear a movement and l turn around to find out a big bright blue bird with a long zebra patterned tail has just gate crashed into this balcony.

This one visited every single day! ^_^

This Airbnb is rightly named as the birdhouse retreat. You see so many birds of so many varieties, it's like a constant feed of joy! The quiet of the mountains with echoing bird songs amidst the abundance of green just asserts once again - the world is beautiful.

Beauty. It's there, you just have to see...

Whilst I wait for my cousin to get ready for our foody venture along the winding lanes of Dharamkot today and a possible brush with the 'Science of Sketching' in one of the cafes, I lose myself looking at the snowy silvery peak of the Dhauladhaar range to my right and the fluttering flags of different colours in the Flagview point at the top of the hill to my left.

Just a walk in the town

There's a nice little trail that takes you from the Gallu temple right down to Dharamkot in about 15 minutes or so. We walk down this way to get to the heart of the town for a stroll and a buzz. We spent the last evening doing the same too but today we are walking the unexplored nooks and corners of the town. After walking to our hearts content, or more accurately, to our legs' capacity, I attend a sketching class for a couple of hours whilst my cousin wanders around some more. The sketching class, called Science of Sketching (I got to know about this from the two sisters who were staying in the next room to us and we would end up having nice little chats every morning!) is very cool, especially for the ambience that gets created in the class. With a bag of memories, now I have got some skills to take back too! After a quick dab with charcoal, I meet my cousin again for his very wanted cable-car ride. The ropeway takes us from McLeodGanj all the way along the slope to Dharamshala and back, whilst generously showing off the burning orange sunset on one side and the bright jewel peaks on the other. The snow peaks glow in the orange hue of the Sun and leaves us speechless!

From the cable car!

Now, we are in a café...just a little place we found whilst searching for some other cafes in one of the streets in McLeodGanj. We decided to settle in. We ordered some food and drinks and just as I start to take in the atmosphere inside the café, someone starts strumming his guitar. Live music it is! He starts singing the most soulful songs one after the other. He has a beautiful voice and when he moves to tune in to Himachali folks that has the familiar tune of everything unknown, I don't want this to end any more...

Rohit Dogra...so soulful!