Seven Days, Four Cities: My Marathon around India

I've been away from the rest of our Bulldogs for a week now and have been trekking around India on my own visitng family and friends.  After leaving Punjab I went to Delhi where some family friends put me up in their guesthouse and provided me with a car and driver for shopping and sightseeing!  well needless to say i did more shopping in the past week than i have on the trip as a whole!  i went to janpath in delhi for a day and then the next day went to the national museum of modern art as well as the bahai temple.  the art museum was great and the front had a very unique sculpture garden.  it was a rather extensive collection of works by contemporary indian artists.  it's right near rajpath (india's equivalent of the national mall) and india gate so i got to see a lot of the government buildings along the way.  next it was off to the bahai temple which is shaped like a lotus.  it's such an architectural marvel.  the inside is very simple and has beautiful high marble ceilings.  the only thing was that it was forty degrees celcius outside, so after these two sightseeing stops i had to call it a day!

from delhi i took off to ranchi, the captial of a state called jharkand.  the state was only formed in 2000 when it split from neighboring Bihar.  it's a very tribal area with a lot of forestry works.  i went to the Ranchi Museum which has a lot of adavasi (tribal) artifacts.  after a great visit with my aunt and uncle, i came back to delhi for a night and then took an early morning flight to Nagpur in Maharastra the next day to see my cousin.  Nagpur was a very impressive city, clean, well designed and there seemed like there was a lot of things to do.  Capitalizing on having cousins around, i asked their help in telling me what new indian cd's to buy.  i essentially bought out the local music store and have loads of new indian beats to bring back to the have in the fall.

that finally takes me to yesterday when i got on a flight for Hyderabad, the capital of my home state of Andhra Pradesh.  Hyderabad is a really developed city with a lot of computer technology and industry.  It's great to finally be in a place where I understand what the people are saying!!  (much easier to negotiate with rikshaw drivers when you can speak the local language!)  now i'm just hanging out here and am hoping to see some of the moghul cultural remains in the city (as well as do some more shopping of course!). 

the last week has been an incredible marathon of running from city to city and seeing family member after family member, but since i'm here only once every few years i'm loving every second i get with  my relatives.  in three days i was in three different airports! 

to the gang in ludhiana:  i miss you guys loads, your adventures in manali and shimla sound like they were great!  i'm so jealous that i missed out on the cremica factory.  can't wait to see you all in delhi.  here's to a great last week and a half...