I should know better than to expect to get stuff done

This past weekend I was dead set on doing work (namely, starting on my final research paper, a ten page monstrosity that needs to be entirely in Hindi). I made a schedule for how I was going to spend the 3 day weekend (Friday was the program organized trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and I figured that, having already seen it, I could use the time to actually get started on the most significant assignment of the proram), decided on a project idea, and actually started doing a little work. But of course, just when I was on the cusp of diligence, Caleb ruined everything.

Turned out that his friend Abhishek Singh was having some of his art displayed in an exhibition in Delhi on Saturday. Caleb is essentially writing his Ph.D. thesis on this guy (and was sort of responsible for this art show?), so he was heading to Delhi to be there for the opening. Annnnd for some reason, he's really good at pressuring me into things, so before I knew it I had agreed to go with him.

This trip reconfirmed three things:

1) Agra is a terrible city. From the mobs of tourists to the rickshaw drivers who demand Rs. 100 for a 5 km ride (metered fare should be around half that), nothing about the city appeals to me.

2) Art is pretty darn cool. The art show was amazing. Caleb's friend is sick - he does religious comic art, but not in the way one typically expects comics to be. Take a look at some of his stuff here - I think most (if not all) of you will appreciate it. Also, his large-scale paintings for the exhibition were so much more impressive than those on his blog. He was presenting two: one of Rama and one of Krishna. Both were incredible.

3) Caleb is kind of cool, I guess. I don't know how many people in the program I could sustain pretty good conversation with for the 4-hour ride to Delhi and the 6-hour ride back to Jaipur, but Caleb is one of those (pretty rare) genuinely good people. Plus he's also a creeper, which gives us easy things to bond over.

While the trip was fun, I'm now realizing that I have my entire final paper to write in the next 2 days. So... probably won't post till next week some time. I know you're all crushed.