A HUGE job in India something that falls to the Archaeological Survey of India known as ASI for short. It is particularly busy at the moment because of the need to have monuments and sites ready for all the visitors who will, we are told, come in their thousands when the Commonwealth games are on in October. We shall wait to see about that but in the meantime a lot of  work is going on hampered a little by the good monsoon this year.

There is so much history and archaeology it must be hugely difficult to prioritise and have adequate resources to cover everything. Sadly that is not possible and in our programme of Seven Cities exploring the seven ancient cities of Delhi we came across sites that were terribly neglected, others that had received a dubious and sometimes inappropriate facelift and others that had been lovingly and painstainkingly restored.

It is on this latter point that I want to rest today.

The facilities here are just unlike any other city. Labour is cheap and tasks are sometimes set out in a simple and understandable manner for these workers who work in the glaring sun for countless hours a day. I wonder if they ever question why they are doing it, or whether they are filled with pride for the small part they play in the restoration process. I doubt it somehow.