On 26 January the National Geographic Channel will showcase programmes that celebrate the vivacity and diversity of the country.

At 7.00 pm Great Indian Railways will be shown. It is a 2-hour special celebrating the largest railway network in the world. Our railways carry the maximum passenger load and cover great distances. The show scrutinises the role the railways play in our lives both past and present.

From the foothills of the Himalayas to the plains and paddyfields of the southern India, from Kerala in the southwest to Assam in the Northeast, the vast fleet of locomotives affect us.

Then at 8.00 pm watch Kumbh Mela. Ace Indian photographer Raghu Rai captures the dramatic human spectacle of the Kumbh Mela, a festival that draws millions of Hindus and other devotees to Allahabad, once every 12 years.

Finally at 9pm watch South India: Fighting for Survival (Different Ball Game). Sports journalist Emma Levine travels to Southern India to experience the controlled violence of Kalaripayattu, a unique form of Indian martial arts.

A master who is adept both in fighting and in healing guides Emma. He is an equally talented masseur and swordsman. Then Emma watches a game of bull racing in flooded rice paddies where herdsmen skim through wetlands behind thundering beasts.