Navarino Narah doesn’t have the fondest memories of the night shifts and lack of weekends of his one-year stint at ESPN Cricinfo. For someone who grew up breathing mountain air in Arunachal Pradesh and Shillong, Delhi was too “difficult a city”.
“It has too many problems,” he says. “Everyday I asked myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I wanted to do something of my own; be on my own. It makes no sense to be in a place just to earn a living. You can do that in the mountains instead.”
So, he gave up his promising sports journalism career and went to the sparsely populated New Zealand to study graphic design. A year later, he came back to Shillong as a school teacher, but quit as the pay was too low.
Having lived in the hills for most of his life, Navarino decided to become a tour guide. “My parents were very supportive,” he says. That’s rare, I tell him. “Yes, but I sounded much happier,” he replies.
Today, Navarino takes tourists trekking, rafting, cycling, and on village experience tours. October to April is spent in Sikkim and Kumaon, while May to September is in Ladakh.
The 28-year-old believes that few people in Delhi are happy. He speaks of several of his friends who are “stuck”, afraid to move out and make difficult choices. But he has made his and he is happy. “I live a healthy life now, this is what I wanted.”
