i, fotos

1. Avoiding Rajasthan all together (save for next time when it is not so hot – April is very hot there)
2. Use overnight train but not too extensively (i.e. not in two consecutively days)
3. Avoid arriving a place in the night
4. Enjoy the time
5. Arrive Mumbai and leave Delhi is fixed

After a week’s research I have mapped out an18 days itineraries with these rules in mind. I posted the plane to Thorn Tree Lonely Planet for comment. Receive some very valuable feedback, remind me the weather being horrendously hot and this plan maybe too rush to be an enjoyable one.
Difficult to decide between Jalgaon, Orccha, [...]

Retrospective

Delhi – use Hotel Star Paradise. In Paharganj Area, near New Delhi Rail Station(NDLS). No windows from rooms – for the heat, noise and pollution in Delhi it may not be a bad idea not to have a window. Some rooms are very small. The only plus point is easy commuting to station, milling around [...]

Here is a consolidation of intelligence from friends at Thorn Tree, Lonely Planet.
By the time we get to Mumbai CST station it would be 14:00ish, which is against rush hour direction. Saturdays (we will be arrived at Sat) are half working days here for some, so might see some crowding.
Rush hours: south bound (outbound of [...]

Begger
Milk for baby 2
Hotel
False phonebooth appointed by driver to re-confirm hotel booking. 1
Taxi driver steers you away from your booked hotel. 4
False hotel/tourist booth. 2
Stage show to scare you as to prove your hotel is not safe. 1
Halfway Taxi, Doubious direction. 1
Greeted by tout at the hotel door. 2
Scamed by fellow traveller. 2
Money
Black market [...]

There is a thread on Thorn Tree (Lonely Planet) knocking about scams in India. Earliest posts dated back to 2002. Eye openers and very entertaining readings.
From a distance the experience itself may be even amuzed (depends on your approach to *experience*). Being in the situation is an awful thing.
I catalogue two threads of about [...]

Here a guy is planning an 18 days North India trip. Start/ends Delhi, which received some very valuable advice. I round it up and it looked like this: This could be a template to work on. We have 15 days, starts Mumbai and ends Delhi.

Where About
Transit
Stay

Delhi

0

Train
1

Jaisalmer

2-3 days

Train
1

Jodhpur

1-2 days

Train *
1 day

Arga**

1 day

Train ***
overnight

Varanasi

3 days

Visit [...]

Steal sometime off work and go the India High Commission at Birmingham. Apparently every non-Indian passport holder must obtain visa and pay a fee to entry the country. No exemption to Common Wealth members, i.e. British nationalities. If applicant holds dual or other nationalities, the application must refer to New Delhi for mandatory clearance.
The waiting [...]

Keep adding interesting place on to the list. And kind of list them in terms of attractiveness. By no means I plan to cramp them all in one go.
Read some posts on Lonely Planet Thorn Tree BBS, a guy drew a long to-visit list to take on India in 65 days, given no break or [...]

Here is a map I found today. Highlight these locations. Green means must do, amber means nice to and blue means we probably cannot.

(Green) The golden triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur
(Green) Mumbai
(Amber) Varanasi, the holy Ghats.
(Amber) Khojuraho: the Karma Sutra Temple
(Amber) Amritsar Sikh’s Golden Temple
(Amber) Udaipur
(Amber) Jaisaimer
(Blue) South – Kerala, Kochi and backwater