DELHI IN A DAY

With handsome colonial boulevards and magnificent Mughal monuments, backstreet mazes and tempting street food – Delhi is a city of glorious contradictions. MARTIN BROWN packs his linen suit and finds that 24 hours is just enough time to see a side of this city far removed from the call-centres and boardrooms of corporate India

8.30am Begin the day by charging your batteries with an early morning jog or yoga session in the peaceful grounds of Humayun’s Tomb, a stunning example of Mughal architecture reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. The nearby shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin is a major Islamic pilgrimage site at the centre of a maze of incredibly narrow streets, and makes for an interesting stop that rarely features on visitor itineraries.

10am Dilli Haat on Aurobindo Marg provides a pressure-free souvenir shopping experience, with tempting stalls offering food from every state in India; especially momos, or dumplings, from the northern states and dishes from Kerala.

11am The best way to get a feel for Delhi at its most elegant is to hire a beetle-like Ambassador taxi or rickshaw and navigate the length of the Lutyens-designed Rajpath, one of the city’s main arteries and a short cut to colonial days. Along the way lies India Gate, a monument to the Indian soldiers who died fighting for Britain in the First World War. Carry on past the president’s house and parliament, where Sharan – an affable langur monkey – prowls to scare away unwelcome macaques.

12pm Verdant Lodhi Gardens, home to Mughal garden tombs engraved with centuries-old inscriptions, truant children and eloping lovers, is the perfect place for a gentle stroll to work up a healthy appetite for a light lunch in the tranquil, shady surroundings of Lodi – The Garden Restaurant.

2.30pm After lunch, head to the subcontinent’s largest mosque, Jama Masjid, at which the southwestern minaret offers unparalleled views of chaotic, sprawling Old Delhi. The house of famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib on Old Delhi’s central thoroughfare, Chandi Chowk, is popular with locals and looks like a tornado has just passed through it, perhaps because the poet was known to enjoy his drink. Legend has it that Ghalib, confronted by his wife over his drinking and woeful financial situation, retorted “Begum (wifey), God always grants food to those who are hungry, but those who are thirsty must make their own arrangements!”

4pm Leave Chandi Chowk behind and brace yourself to plunge – on rickshaw or on foot – into the heaving melee of side streets, with their endless opportunities for sensory intoxication and unforgettable images.

To wander these streets is to feel truly alive; one intrigues the eye with the riot of whirling saris; the next is an altogether more serious affair – students scour tiny shops packed to the rafters with textbooks, yet another intoxicates the nostrils as traders brush past with barrows of the freshest spices on earth. Take the time to talk to and make friends with the very lively stallholders.pm

6pm Pause for breath in the quiet courtyard of Fatehpuri Masjid before catching a rickshaw to legendary Karim’s, a traditional Mughal eatery considered to be one of the finest and most authentic dining experiences in Asia. Load up on mutton sekh kebabs wrapped with pickles in roomali roti, or handkerchief bread, badam pasanda, or goat meat in almond and onion gravy, and shermal, or sweet bread covered in honey.

8pm As the sun sets over the Red Fort head to the terrace of The Imperial for a quiet drink in elegant surroundings and move on to either Q-ba or the Aura vodka bar in The Claridges hotel to rub shoulders with Delhi’s rich and beautiful. Alternatively, retire to New Friends Colony in southern Delhi, where Chinese-influenced The Yum Yum Tree has a grill, modern art installations and one of the swankiest bars in town.