Driving around affluent neighbourhoods in the capital is like flicking, in no particular order, through a book on architectural styles since ancient times.
Everywhere you turn, there are touches of baroque, neoclassical, Gothic and classical - a White House replica here, a Palladian mansion there.
These are not public buildings or monuments. They are the homes of the rich. There are people from all over India living in New Delhi, but its dominant community is from the neighbouring state of Punjab, which is known for its resourceful, energetic and enterprising people.
Many Punjabis arrived in the capital penniless, in the 1940s, after India was partitioned and Pakistan was carved out. Punjabis who lived in the Pakistani part of Punjab had to flee their homes.
Refugees, they arrived in New Delhi with nothing except their entrepreneurial skill and ambition. Many became rich; and once Punjabis become rich, the first thing they do to flaunt their wealth is build a grand home.
There's nothing wrong with that. The problem lies in what they order from the architect. If they stuck to one particular style, it would not be so bad, perhaps, but they order a gaudy mishmash of every conceivable style.
The resulting eyesore of a home is a glorious profusion of Doric columns, Corinthian capitals, grand porticos, Gothic rib-vaulting, Bavarian castles and red-tiled haciendas.
