Two shows featuring the urban and rural culture of India.

Delhi &Agra, India: India is the world’s “it” country. Tumultuous, colorful, and fragrant, northern India is a mosaic of urban and rural life. “You can put a camera down almost anywhere in India and let it run for two hours,” Rudy Maxa says, “and when you return, you’ll have a film to rival an ‘Indiana Jones’ movie.” From the serene beauty of one man’s love poem to a woman, the Taj Mahal, to the crowded alleys of downtown New Delhi, India is a feast for the senses. Maxa discovers temples straight out of Disneyland and consults a street astrologer who tells him he will live a long life but his hotel room number is not an auspicious one.

Rajasthan, India: Jaipur, the “Pink City,” provided the Mughal Empire with its generals even as its civilians were building some of the world’s great temples and palaces. Here travelers find the Hawa Mahal, the Hall of Winds, built with red and pink sandstone. One of Rajasthan’s other great cities, Jodhpur, is less know to the world, even though it loaned its name to a style of riding breeches. This episode takes viewers into the royal rooms behind the sandstone walls of the Mehrangarh Fort, perched high above the city. And in the back streets of Jodhpur, cameras find the enormous furniture industry that collects and refurbishes heirloom furniture that make their way to stores around the world. In the dusty countryside outside of Jodhpur, villagers who have never have seen a Westerner invite Rudy Maxa into their modest homes, and the maharajah of Jodhpur explains why his palace is now a hotel.