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anywhere where there is acute poverty) and it is only a matter of time before newcomers are picked up, and made to undergo horrific ordeals under the pretext that it will eventually aid them in their new job—begging. This is a job open to all—the young (children as young as 3 years of age), the sick, the old—but sadly, with no reward, as money earned goes virtually directly to the gang leaders, who offer “protection” (usually from themselves) as reward. By law it is now illegal to give money to beggars and while many may consider this heartless, there is good reason for it: Each time you give money, you are actually encouraging beggary and keeping it alive. Reasons apart, the heart may still cry out and so the next best thing to do would be to give food—carry a few packs of cookies or fruit with you; it may bring a smile to many a face, even more than a few rupees would. Alternatively, consider booking a walking tour with Salaam Baalak Trust City Walk ( 011/2358-4164;www.salaambaalaktrust.com); these take you through the city’s hodgepodge of streets and back alleys and are led by street children, who relish the gainful employment this offers (see “Guided Tours,” later).

Delhi is an excellent starting point for exploring North India, not only because of its ample transport connections and relatively sophisticated infrastructure, but because the history of Delhi, one of the oldest cities in the world, is essentially the history of India (see “A Tale of Seven Cities,” below).

The city is littered with crumbling tombs and ruins, most of which are not even on the tourist map. They—like the elephant trundling alongside a traffic-logged road, where handwritten posters for CUSTOM CONFISCATED GOODS SOLD HERE vie with glossy fashion billboards—are just part of the strange fabric of Delhi. It doesn’t have the vibrancy of Mumbai or the atmosphere of Kolkata, but in 1 day you can go from marveling at the sheer grace of the soaring Qutb Minar Tower, built in 1199 by the Turkish Slave King Qutb-ud-din Aibak to celebrate his victory over the Hindu Rajputs, to gawking at that 1920s British imperialist masterpiece, palatial Rashtrapati Bhavan. You can wander through the sculptural Jantar Mantar, a huge, open-air astronomy observatory built in 1725 by Jai Singh, creator and ruler of Jaipur, experience the tangibly sacred atmosphere surrounding the tomb of the 14th-century Sufi saint, Sheikh Nizamuddin Aulia, or admire the 16th-century garden tomb of Mughal Emperor Humayun, precursor to the Taj. Or, after the chaos of exploring the crowded streets of 17th-century Shahjahanabad, Delhi’s oldest living city, you can escape to Rajghat, the park where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948; or to Lodi Gardens, where lawns and golfing greens are studded with the crumbling 15th-century tombs of once-powerful dynasties. And still you haven’t covered the half of it . . .

But despite its host of attractions, unless you’re staying in one of its top hotels (of which colonial-era Imperial and spanking-new Aman are almost destinations in their own right), Delhi is not a very relaxing destination, and it is as famous for its pollution (rated among the top 20 worst-polluted cities in the world for decades) as it is for its sights. Unless you’re a history buff or here on business or like to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of a big city, spend as much time as you need to recover from jet lag, choosing to view only a few of its many attractions (the best of which are listed below), and then move on. The rest of India, with its awesome array of experiences and beauty, awaits you.

A Tale of Seven Cities

Chosen by the strategically astute invaders who attacked from the north, east, and west, Delhi was not only the gateway to the fertile Gangetic plains and watered by its own Yamuna River, but it enjoyed some protection from the west by the Aravalli Mountains that cross latter-day Rajasthan, and by the Himalayas to the north. Despite this, waves of invaders resulted in the creation—and more often than not destruction—of at least seven distinct cities. The