19th August

The Vodafone man did not come. Bastards. Lauren’s looked like it might have a sign of life tonight but then wouldn’t let her connect to the network, and apparently no one in the Vodafone help team can do anything. So back to the Model Town store we go. Fun times.

Today was pretty good. I had no classes, so spent the time waiting for the Vodafone man reading A Tale of a Tub by Swift. I got through it all, and while it is a little confusing, it is a pretty amazing book as well. The allegory within it, the constant digressions and confusions...it is hard to get your head around but in a pleasing way. After lunch we went into the Uni for our Hindi class and learnt about five useful words. It was basically a repeat of last class, but this time he told us how to count to four. Amazing. Now if only we had the other numbers leading up to a couple of hundred and we would be sorted with the rickshaw men, That, or directions, would be so useful right now.

I want internet! Stupid people. I spent my last rupees last night on calling Iain. Bah.

After Hindi, we went and bought a couple of metres of fabric from the store on our street, and the man thought we were mad for not buying five in order to make a saree. After that we went to sit in the AIM café and I got an amazing ginger, lemon and sugar tea that was just perfection in everyway. After that we went out to the cinema down the road. It was incredibly weird. Firstly, you had to be searched in order to get in. Secondly, there are two levels of seats for these films: stalls, or cheap seats, or the balcony. We chose the cheaper seats. The cinema inside was a horrendous orange colour with a faded out pattern that must have been put up in the 1970s. All the chairs were just as old, and were effectively seats strapped together. The film was Kaminey, and it was a sort of gangster-action film. It was about two brothers, one called Gudduh and one called Charlie, who were twins. Gudduh tries to marry a girl, after getting her pregnant (we think), but she is a mob boss’ daughter and he gets beaten up. At the same time, Charlie works for a gangster at the horse races, and then finds a huge amount of cocaine and plans to sell it. However, corrupt policeman finds Gudduh, thinking it is Charlie with the stolen cocaine. The mob boss finds Charlie, thinking he is Gudduh. And then there was another gangster, we think the owner of the cocaine, thrown into the mix. It all ended in a massive gun battle in which Charlie tosses the cocaine into the fire and redeems himself, saving Sweety (pregnant one) and Gudduh. Charlie is then shot, but at the very end appears to be very much alive when he gets a call from Gudduh, who has just fathered twin boys (shock). There were only two or three bollywood moments, most upsettingly. Also, the film had incredibly strange cinematography and it kept jumping all over the place, and cutting to random symbolic scenes. I am sure it made tones of sense if you watched it in English, but we were watching it in Hindi. The only word I managed to decipher was ‘kyaa?’ which means ‘what?’. What made the film more interesting, was the general shoddiness of the reel, the intervals half way through that lasted all of thirty seconds, and the constant answering of mobile phones and having a wee chat. The film was so loud however, that this was for once hardly a problem.

After the film we went to a juice stall and got some OJ, which was awesome, as we were all parched. After that, we walked up the road and got water (the man now knows us, but I shocked him by asking for ‘do panni’ rather than just pointing and numbering on my fingers.) Ben went up the road to Gwyer, and we came inside. Marie was in the internet room, where there was no internet.

Went along to Lauren’s to see about the net, but there is still nothing doing. Amanda tried to hold a cigarette to her mosquito bites to try and suck the poison out, but I think she just ended up burning herself. Kaus swears by it, but I think it may be mind over matter in his case, as it seemed to bugger all but burn poor Amanda’s already aching foot. I know how it feels, I had one on my foot last week and I have to admit, the feet are the most painful. I think it must be to do with the pressure as you are walking around all day. Ah well. Who knows?