Wow, north India! What wonderful photo opportunities await you. Lucky you!
I'd let the camera's exposure meter do it's own thing. For most shots, I'd use Evaluative metering:
http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-features/camera-modes/metering/In bright light, depending on the scene, I'd set the camera to minus 1/3 or 2/3 exposure compensation.
http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-features/advanced-settings/ec/If a close up subject is backlit, use the flash, even outside.
http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/lighting-techniques/fill-in-flash/In difficult lighting, bracket:
http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/advanced-techniques/bracketing/For scenery, use a mid-range aperture to maximize depth of field:
http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/advanced-techniques/dof/As you may know, each lens has a "sweet spot" so determine the sweet spot for your lenses. The following is about the Canon XSi, but the principles apply to other DSLR lenses as well:
http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-logs/canon-xsi-450d/soft-images-2/Finally, take plenty of photos and don't be afraid with a DSLR to raise the ISO when necessary.
Hope you get some great shots and will share some of them with us.
btw, here are some composition suggestions and examples:
http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/advanced-techniques/composing-photos/
