The Desi Traveler

I suppose travelers from all countries have a distinct sort of identity, some peculiarities, which identify them to others, more specifically their own countrymen. Over years, I have found that the Americans would find everyone other than an American inefficient, rude, unhelpful and generally nuts. Europeans, and I shall differentiate between different countries in Europe at some other time, find others uncouth, uncultured, flashy and so on...

So what about the Desi Traveler? For my readers from outside India, Desi is a part endearing, part pejorative term for a person of Indian origin - stemming perhaps from the fact that Columbus  and his cronies usurped the term Indian for the original inhabitants of the New World, leaving us kind of identity-less, till we found Desi. 'Desi' (देसी) comes from 'desh' (देश) meaning country, and literally means a country person, or a country bumpkin.