Call the Masta advice line, 0891 224100, for more information; this is another premium- rate line, but better value than the Indian visa one.More information: Indian Government Tourist Office, 7 Cork Street, London W1X 2LN (0171-437 3677) Open 9.30am-1pm and 2-6pm.. Rice harvests, toddy, lime groves – Alex Ninian gets a front-seat view of Indian life on the road from Madras

Our mission was limes. We were driving from Madras in Tamil Nadu to Gudur in Andhra Pradesh to achieve the objective. In addition, some services this winter will be operating direct from Gatwick to Agra, location of the Taj Mahal.Visas: British passport holders need a visa for India, usually the six-month, pounds 26 variety. Contact the High Commission of India, India House, Aldwych, London WC2B 4NA, or the Consulate-General of India, The Spencers, 19 Augustus Street, Jewellery Quarter, Hockley, Birmingham B18 6DS.Call the 24-hour visa information service (0891 880800) for more details, but be warned that this premium-rate service can prove expensive.Health: the only compulsory vaccination for India is yellow fever for people arriving from areas where it is endemic.

For example, sample fares from Bridge the World (0171-911 0911) for travel in November, including UK tax, are: Delhi pounds 410 on Gulf Air via the Middle East, Mumbai pounds 346 on Qatar Airways via Doha, Calcutta pounds 530 on Air India via Delhi, and Madras(now officially Chennai) pounds 457 on Gulf Air.Charter flights: The main gateways are Goa and Trivandrum, catering for the package holiday destinations of Goa and Kerala respectively. Many other airlines will get you to Delhi via a range of indirect routings, stopping anywhere from Ashkhabad to Zurich.The lowest fares are always available from discount travel agents rather than direct from airlines.One useful agent for non-stop flights is Welcome Travel (0171-439 3627), a leading discounter for Air India, but other firms can offer good deals on a range of carriers. No one else but a native would live here.”Passages to IndiaGetting there: Reaching India is easier and, in real terms, cheaper, than it has ever been. Dozens of airlines will take you from the UK to various Indian cities. But before you buy your ticket, make sure you’ve taken the necessary visa and health requirements into account.Scheduled flights: the main airlines flying direct from the UK to Delhi and Mumbai (formerly Bombay) are Air Canada, Air India, British Airways and United Airlines. KLM/Northwest offer daily connections from several UK airports via Amsterdam. It is impossible to walk its whirlwind streets and remain unmoved.I asked one resident how he managed to live there, and he answered with a laugh: “Ask a New Yorker the same question, and you’d get the same reply.

Now a shrine, this remains the way he left it, adorned only with a spinning-wheel, a desk, a mattress and his famous stick.Mumbai is a fascinating, if draining, place to visit. The prose in the captions has a leaning towards the purple – one declares that “the assassin of the ages came with unholy design and lodged hot lead in the flesh of the man who had known no enemy”. But the collection of photos and documents builds up a comprehensive picture of the man. The most moving part of the museum is the room where Gandhi lived. Despite all this, the panels retain an awesome power derived from a potent mixture of their age, size and serenity.