Five Journeys.
One Incredible
India.

Old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad as it was named by the emperor who built it, is a maze of narrow lanes called galis where every turn reveals a different era. Jama Masjid, one of India's largest mosques, stands at the heart of it all — built in 1656, still commanding the skyline. Walk down Chandni Chowk at dawn, before the city wakes, and you will understand why this place has been a seat of power for so long.

New Delhi — the imperial city designed by Edwin Lutyens — tells a different story. Wide, tree-lined boulevards, grand colonial architecture, and Rajpath leading to India Gate. Humayun's Tomb, a predecessor to the Taj Mahal and a UNESCO Heritage Site, sits here in quiet perfection. Qutub Minar, at 73 metres, is the world's tallest brick minaret and has been standing since 1193.

Shah Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal in 1631 after the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Twenty thousand artisans worked for 22 years to complete it. The white marble was brought from Makrana in Rajasthan, the semi-precious stone inlays from Persia, Afghanistan, and even China. What you see is not just a building — it is a 17th-century statement about grief, power, and transcendence. Go at dawn. The marble absorbs the light differently every hour of the day.

Agra Fort, just 2.5 kilometres away, is the place from which Shah Jahan governed his empire and, in his final years, was imprisoned by his own son Aurangzeb. From the octagonal tower called the Musamman Burj, where he was held captive, Shah Jahan could see the Taj Mahal in the distance. He died there in 1666, his last view the monument he had built for love.

Jaipur, the Pink City, earns its name from the terracotta-pink paint applied to its old city walls in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales. The colour became the city's identity. Amber Fort, 11 kilometres out of the city, rises from a ridge above a lake and ranks among the finest examples of Rajput architecture in existence. Inside, the Sheesh Mahal — Hall of Mirrors — is decorated with a thousand tiny mirrors such that a single candle flame lights up the entire chamber.

Further west, Jodhpur is the Blue City — houses painted indigo blue, originally by Brahmin families to mark their homes, then adopted by everyone for its insect-repelling properties. Mehrangarh Fort above the city is one of the most imposing forts on earth. Beyond Jodhpur lies Jaisalmer, a golden sandstone fort-city that rises from the Thar Desert like a mirage — and still has 3,000 people living within its walls.

The city is organized around its ghats — stone steps descending to the Ganges. There are 88 of them, stretching for 7 kilometres. At Dasaswamedh Ghat every evening, the Ganga Aarti ceremony takes place: an elaborate ritual of fire, flowers, incense, and hymns that has been performed without interruption for centuries. To watch it from a boat on the river — surrounded by pilgrims, priests chanting, brass lamps swinging in arcs of fire — is to understand that you are not a tourist here. You are a witness.

Manikarnika Ghat, the main cremation ghat, burns 24 hours a day. Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi and being cremated on the banks of the Ganga grants moksha — liberation from the cycle of rebirth. It is a place of profound reverence, not spectacle. I will tell you how to visit with the respect it demands. Sarnath, 10 km away, is where the Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. One day, two of the world's great religions.

The Kerala Backwaters are a 900-kilometre network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes and inlets running parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. Travelling through them on a traditional kettuvallam — a rice barge converted into a houseboat — for two or three days, drifting through villages, paddy fields, and coconut groves, is the single most relaxing experience available in India. The world does not move quickly here. Alleppey (Alappuzha) is the base for most houseboat journeys and is called the Venice of the East with less irony than you might expect.

Munnar, in the Western Ghats at 1,600 metres, is the tea country — rolling hills carpeted in managed green, cloud-hung mornings, and the smell of leaves being processed in colonial-era factories. The tea here, grown at altitude in cool temperatures, is among the finest produced in India. Further south, Thekkady and the Periyar Wildlife Reserve offer boat safaris through a reservoir where herds of elephants come to drink at the water's edge at dawn — wild and unhurried.