The most frequent journey I have made in the last decade has been between Dehradun and Bangalore. Earlier, I mostly travelled by bus between Delhi and Dun - this took you through the sugarcane-mustard-wheat growing areas of N. India as well as the lovely Shivaliks. The journey changed colours with the season - mustard fields painted the landscape yellow in feb-march, monsoon was full of life and green, early winters were several shades of brown-red. In the recent years, I have been mostly doing this journey at night by ac trains...till yesterdays drive from Dun to Delhi. 
Driving down from Dun with some friends - through the Haryana route (rather than the Roorkee-Muzafarnagar road) was an incredible experience. The people-scapes around the Shivaliks and even around Rajaji where I once worked, have changed beyond recognisition in the last five years. Tiny Biharigad is thrice its size now, and there are over a dozen shops at the park entrance to Rajaji (Mohand). The roads are better, but there are many more vehicles. For all of you asking me about my post-phd plans, here is #1 on my wishlist:
..to backpack around India / SE Asia on a shoe-string budget ...and experience life more closely...take lots of pictures and lose sense of time in some time-less places...
