rjrsmith24

It would be a shame to think that I understand Delhi. It would be a greater shame to think that I understand India. Were I to think this, I would miss out on all the wonderful things I’ve learned. The last few days, and indeed weeks, I have been trying to see everything in Delhi worth seeing, and to return to the places I found bearable. I’ve tried to eat at all the best places one more time, and all the while, I have tried to pack up. It’s hard for me to imagine that I made this place home for half a year, and I am only really reminded when I search under the bed for lost socks. I leave for China on Tuesday, and it has rather snuck up on me. In four days, ... read more

Who would have thought that Delhi could be pleasant? The past week, I’ve been working frantically to finish my final papers. When I finished, tom y great surprise I was left with sixteen extra hours a day. I leave Delhi in a little more than a week, so I decided to do a few of the things that have been sitting idly on my “must see” list. Were I to stay in my apartment any longer, I’m sure my leg muscles would have atrophied. It’s too easy to order food and watch South Park all day. So on Sunday, rather spur of the moment, I grabbed my tattered Rough Guide, which had been collecting dust in my room for the past few weeks, and flew out the door around mid-day. My first stop was Safdarjung’s Tomb. ... read more

It’s cruel how quickly the seasons change. One week I was sitting in my boxers, sweating profusely while drinking ice water (which promptly turned to hot water in my hands). The next, the sky has turned an even hazier gray, and the mornings are less than tepid. So I suppose that the weather has not changed too much, except that the difference is excrutiating without hot water. Thus, my mornings have become a painful foray into Antarctic chills. I wake up, having covered up from the fan above me, which is used to keep the air moving and, my roommate claims, and to keep the bugs away. I sleep out in the main room, which I decided to do back in July. This was when the thermometer was topping 100 degrees at night, and Stated that ... read more

Well, it’s not quite the gauntlet. More like a self-inflicted time crunch that will span the next month. That’s how long I have left in India. A month. It seems odd to say. I’m saving my travel funds until the program ends, and my lengthy end-of-the-term papers are growling at me. Plus, I have a whole language to re-learn, thanks to the long break in Hindi class and my sloth in studying on my own. It’s easy to not know Hindi in Delhi. So I have a month in Delhi, for better or worse. A month to savor all the tantalizing aromas and tastes, to throw myself back into the mix without interruption of extended weekends around India. I guess Delhi is on the chopping block, and I’m the one holding the ax, debating whether or ... read more

Dad has left now. For the few days after Kathmandu, the two of us lounged around our luxurious hotel room at the Grand Goodwin in Ram Nagar. For one of the days, my Dad went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, while I ordered room service and watched “Mortal Kombat” and “Get Me Out of Here, I’m a Celebrity!” reruns on television. We had a great time, and more than anything else, I enjoyed just having my father there to talk with. It seemed almost egregious that we set our final weekend in Mumbai, an Indian city unlike any I have visited. Mumbai is like New York, Miami, Hollywood, and London all rolled into one and thrown onto a small rock jutting into the Arabian Sea. And yet it’s nothing like those ... read more

I'm in the process of moving my India blog to a new website, at blogspot.com. This will allow me to upload pictures. It's also a much more dashing format, so check it out. I'll keep updating to this website in the meantime. I've posted the link to the new blog below: http://ronaldsmithjr.blogspot.com/ ... read more

India is the perfect scapegoat. A wonderfully easy receptacle for all of my homesickness, frustration with global politics, and confusion regarding my place in the world. Delhi, being my primary lens in which to view India, can fit this judgment very comfortably. Yet there is something beautiful, something that I have missed until now, that is inherent in a country of more than a billion people whose primary goal is to create democracy. It is erratic, and at many times overwhelmingly abrasive, but beneath the dusty surface, India is full of warm and loving people who are proud of their country devoted to their families. Rickshaw drivers, who I once believed were the bane of humanity, more often than not work in the city in order to support their families in the countryside, whom they rarely ... read more

We touched down in Kathmandu after the two-hour flight and stepped outside to find a wondrous fresh air, cool mist, and green hills, all a dramatic change from hot, crowded Delhi. I truly felt I was thousands of miles away from India, though I was less than a thousand kilometers from India’s capital. The eclectic crowd of travelers was another interesting change. Whereas in India, most travelers are either older women in search of meaningful experiences, or younger Caucasian hippies with nasty dreadlocks in search of meaningful experiences. Both are often disappointed and head for the Himalayas as quickly as possible. In Nepal, however, I found tourists of seemingly all backgrounds and budgets, most looking to trek, although we also found families and elderly couples who were no doubt heading to the animal reserves or relaxed ... read more

My Dad flew into Delhi around noon, and I met him back at the Star Hotel, a midrange place on the strip of lonely neon hotels near the airport. I was really glad to see him, but was a little worried about what he would think of the whole place. If I had problems with India, my Dad, with a similar mindset and less tolerance for bullshit, would surely have a problem. We immediately got into the thick of Delhi. I don’t know if this is a good strategy, but I have employed it now with my girlfriend and my Dad, and plan to do the same thing with my sister when she comes. We took a rickshaw into Humayun’s Tomb where we wandered around a little. There was some sort of construction or renovation project ... read more

Lalely, a string of Indian holidays and Hindu festivals has limited my class schedule. In other words, I haven't had class in three weeks, which is, apparently, perfectly normal for Delhi University. So when I am not traveling on weekends, my life has involved (but has not been strictly limited to) reading The Wind in the Willows and other children's books, ordering take-out Chinese food, drinking cheap wine, and taking facebook quizzes such as "Which historical literary movement are YOU?" Thus, I have had time to (and no excuses not to) load some pictures onto Flickr. I will continue to update my account, seeing as TravelBlog.com is a pile of... well. I hope Mr. TravelBlog.com reads this. I posted the link to my Flickr account below: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39451131@N07/ ... read more