BANGALORE
Often described as Asia's Silicon Valley because of its thriving information technology industry, Bangalore is India's fifth-largest and fast growing city. Until its high-tech boom in the late 80's city was as the Garden City, with greenery flourishing its pleasant, temperature climate. Today, with a growing population of young professionals, it has acquired a vibrant, cosmopolitan air. Bangalore was founded in the 16th century by a local chieftain, but derives its name from the Kannad word Bendu kaluru, or "boiled beans", which an old woman gave a 10th century Hoysala king when he turned up hungry at her doorstep.

CHENNAI (MADRAS)
A conglomeration of several overgrown villages, Chennai has no single centre, but can be divided into a numerous urban districts, connected by four main roads. George Town is to the northeast of Periyar EVR High Road (Poonamallee High Road), while Egmore, Triplicane and Mylapore are to the south. The city's main thoroughfare, Anna Salai (Mount Road), links Fort St George with Mount St Thomas, to the south. Chennai's other main road; Rajaji Salai (North Beach Road) and Kamarajar Salai (South Beach Road), run along the seafront along the popular Marina promenade towards Kalakshetra.

Visit the museum to see the art and Bronze Gallery. (Closed on Fridays and Public holidays) Drive through the flower and Fruit market, High court, Fort museum, Marina Beach, Santhome Cathedral and Snake Park.

DELHI
The Capital of India is its third largest city, with a population of about 10 million. Its strategic location along the north-south, east-west route has give it a focal position in Indian history, and many great empire have been ruled from here. The monuments and ruins of these are scattered throughout the city, often cheek by jowl with modern structures and high rise towers.

HYDERABAD
The sixth largest city in India, Hyderabad was founded in 1591 and planned as a grid with the Charminar at its centre. It has now grown well beyond the confines of the original walled city, to include a new town north of the Musi River, the military cantonment at Secunderabad, and a burgeoning high-tech estate, nicknamed "Cyberabad". The city's sights include the grand palaces of its erstwhile rulers, the Nizams, and the colourful Bazaars and Mosques of the old city.

KOLKATA
One of the world's great cities, Kolkata or Calcutta as it used to be known has been through many incarnations. From an obscure village on the banks of the Hooghly River, it evolved into the capital of Great Britain's Indian Empire. Today, this vibrant city with its distinct imperial flavour, is the capital of West Bengal, the only Indian State with a Communist-led government.

In 1690, an English merchant, Job Charnock, established a trading post in the riverside village of Sutanuti which, together with neighboring Govindapur and Kolkata, grew into the city of Calcutta. Over the next 200 years, the city became a flourishing commercial centre with imposing Victorian Gothic buildings, churches, and boulevards. Simultaneously, intellectual and cultural live bloomed, with a renaissance of Bengali art and literature, and the growth of a strong nationalist reform movement that led to the founding of the Brahma Samaj, an enlightened off-shoot of Hinduism, and the establishment of Presidency College, then the foremost centre of English education. The decision to shift the capital to New Delhi in 1911 and the urban decay of the 1960s diminished some of the city's affluence, but never quenched its effervescence.

In 2001, Calcutta became Kolkata, the Bengali pronunciation of its name. The city is crowded and dirty in places, but is nevertheless full of character. The teeming life of the waterfront along the strand, the noisy jumble of bazaars and pavement stalls, the residential streets with their once gracious mansions, all make for an electric, cosmopolitan atmosphere, rarely found in other Indian cities. Kolkata's charms straddle the decaying grandeur of the imperial capital and the smart restaurants and boutiques of Park Street. These coexist with the traditional Bengali world of Rabindranath Tagore's mansion at Jorasanko, the Kalighat temple and the potters village of Kumartuli, and with the lively politics of the Coffee House and the Maidan, dominated by the Victoria Memorial, a spectacular symbol of imperial high noon.

MUMBAI (BOMBAY)
The capital of Maharashtra, is India's most dynamic, cosmopolitan and crowded city. The country's financial center and its busiest port, Mumbai is also home to the world's biggest cinema industry, popularly known as Bollywood. Some 15 million people, from billionaire tycoons to homeless pavement dwellers, live in this teeming megalopolis.