25th August

Well, today was slightly more productive than yesterday. Apart from class this morning, which included a great lecture on the Republic by Plato, Lauren, Ben and I made an excursion to Chandni Chowk. We wandered around the streets for a little bit until we finally managed to find the Jamma Masjid mosque. It is huge, built out of the same stone as the Red Fort. You have to climb up some stairs to get up onto the level of it, and then it opens out into a huge open air courtyard and then the mosque itself sits at the top end. It is all faced with marble up there, and there is a lot of intricate detail around the pillars and minarets. We had to take our shoes off when we went in, and then Lauren and I were forced to put on these terrible bright orange smocks to cover our ‘inappropriate’ clothing. What I didn’t understand though, as that I was wearing long trousers and sleeves, with almost nothing, except my face, on show, and yet I had to wear one of the smocks despite some other women wearing cropped trousers and v-necks. I think it might be just a marker for tourists in order to humiliate you.

We sat and wandered for about three hours in the mosque. The stone was hot to walk on, so we sat on the cooler marble in the mosque itself. I didn’t understand why so many men were just sitting around the place; didn’t they have jobs? I know it is  Ramadan, as many girls are getting up at 4am to eat and pray, but that doesn’t mean they get time off. Very odd. A lot of school boys kept on coming up to me and Lauren and saying ‘Hello madam!’ before running off giggling with their friends, having won major man points for their trouble. Ben and Lauren went up the minaret, but I wasn’t in the mood to negotiate the stairs and decided to sit at the pool in the middle of the court yard and read some more Plato.  All very civilized. Men would keep standing over me to try and work out what I was reading. Everyone was just washing their faces and drinking the water from the pool, and then spitting into the ditch running along it. It was quite peaceful in its own way.

After this we went back through Chandni Chowk. A word on this area: this is Old Delhi, or the Muslim Quarter. Here, there are tones of tiny streets that lead you to a treasure trove of saree and silver shops. The silver shops are amazing: some of them have incredibly tacky modern jewelry, but some have beautiful antique silver things that you get the impression cost a bomb. The bridal jewelry was all pretty elaborate and pretty as well. I find the nose-earring contraption quite appealing. Everyone wants their face to jingle as they walk… You see sometimes on posters of men's faces people have graffitied these earring things on to their face rather than devil horns and a mustache. We will have to go back, but Lauren was feeling sick, so we got the metro back to the hostel.

Spent a while in the gym tonight, but found it quite hard. I think the illness put paid to a lot of my energy.

My wireless still isn’t working. Had a brief five minutes on the net on Amanda’s computer and got a message from Iain saying he has spent over £100 calling me in the past three weeks. I feel terrible about it, and I am going to insist on paying half of it at least, but Iain has told me not to think about it. I owe him big time.

Watched another Hindi film tonight with the Lithuanians. It was called ‘Delhi 6’, which is somewhat ironic as that is basically Chandni Chowk, so we had many scenic views of the mosque and the jalebi stalls and crowded streets. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but it was better than Kaminey I think. There was more singing and dancing going on as well, which is always a plus in my book! I think it was about a man who comes with his mother to Delhi from New York, and then falls in love with a neighbouring family’s daughter, who wants to be a singer. She is being forced into an arranged marriage, but then there is a huge fight between the Muslims and Hindus and our hero gets caught in the crossfire. The whole thing ends with him gasping for air in an ambulance and everyone praising God that he is going to be ok. Though, as far as I know, a gunshot wound to the stomach and general beating, coupled with the heart attack he has when he first gets in the ambulance, doesn’t bode well, and is certainly not a cause for celebration. Hindi films are all very weird.