NEW Delhi Airport

Wow. The Indira Gandhi International Airport has come light years in just the four years I've been traveling to India. The new landing pad has it all—state-of-the-art travel facilities, sleek and modern interiors, good shopping, lots of dining choices and way better bathrooms. But in a way, I miss the feel of the "old" airport.

Yogic mudra art at the New Delhi airport.

Gone are the porters roaming about ready to help with luggage for a few rupees. It's all self-serve now, I'm sure a result of increased security. The little place with tea for 15 rupees is gone. Instead, there's a chain sandwich shop.

Technology is vastly improved, but I was more entertained back then. When my luggage was lost in October, 2006 I experienced my first machinations of Indian bureaucracy. I filled out forms with carbon copy papers in between, then watched as an employee copied exactly what I wrote onto other forms. At the desk was a dusty dinosaur of a printer. I was sent across the terminal to get my lost luggage form stamped—apparently for no reason since the official didn't even glance at it. Now, nearly everything is automated.

Walking outside I breathed my first breath of pungent and memorable smoke-filled night-time air in Delhi and watched the chaos of cars and people before me. (One thing that's mysteriously missing from this modern terminal is inclined curbs—handy for luggage carts and the handicapped. They might be there, but I couldn't find them.) Now, people wait behind guard rails and taxis are ready and waiting in numbered spots in orderly queues. Yes, it's more convenient, but not nearly as lively.

Oddly, upon my arrival this time the area inside the terminal had that same smoky smell. I was nostalgically comforted.