7th August

This morning’s classes were ok. The first was a very interesting lecture on Dryden, and I think the professor for 18^th C literature is fairly intelligent and interested in his subject. The second that I had was a lecture supposedly on Shelley, but the lecturer went off on a huge tangent about neo-classicism and what that meant. I swear it went along the lines of “Neo means new, and classicism means the classics.” Painfully dull. I am hoping the other literary theory classes are not so bad as that because that was just horrible. I mean, I could teach Shelley better than that and I have fuck all idea in comparison to the people in Edinburgh who would be teaching us. Sigh.

We moved out of the Guest House this afternoon. We had to carry our cases up to the op of the hostel, but it was worth it when we got a room to stay in. It looks like we are going to be staying here for the foreseeable future. It would be nice to have our own place. But here there is shelter, a clean enough bathroom with an actual toilet and food. There is even a gym and a TV room with a big flat screen. The madam here seems mad but nice, and I think so long as you keep on the right side of her she will look out for you. We need a lot of signatures in order to complete our registration here so next week will be spent running to and fro trying to get them all. We need to register at the Foreign Office as well, so I think we will try to go on Monday. To be honest, I am just glad to know I will have my own room and somewhere permanent to stay. The Guest House was nice, but it just felt so transitory that I couldn’t have been comfortable.

In the afternoon we went to Khan Market, which is heaven in comparison to everything else I have seen in this god-fore-saken city. It is in South Delhi, and we had to take an Auto to it from the station, as the metro doesn’t go that far yet. All the houses here are huge stately homes, with guards with guns outside them at sentry posts. We even passed the HQ of the BJP, which was interesting. We met Iya and Crispin in Café Barista, which is a sort of up-market version of Coffee Day. Iya took us to a bookshop, Barrisons, which did not have my English books, but did have some very interesting books on History. I bought one book on Science and Colonisalism, which I am very interested in. Iya then took us along to FabIndia, which may I say, is quite fab. Everything is stacked on shelves and you have to rummage for ages until you find anything, but the clothes are just so brightly coloured and comfy looking. Lauren and I found a pair of absolutely crazy pants that have this black and white patterning all over them. An Indian woman had to help us put them on properly though, as we had no idea of where to tie them up or anything. They are very strange. Very baggy at the waist so you have to draw them right in and then they are tight at the ankles, so you have to peel them off like a sock. We ended up spending a good 30 quid on outfits. I got the crazy pants, a red kurta with gold braiding, a white top and a red and black skirt, and turquoise green baggy pants and a darker green top with pink braiding. I also got a nice green-blue dupatta with flowers round the edge that I just couldn’t resist. I felt infinitely better after that. I have to say, retail therapy does work wonders. We all felt amazing having bought something. Combined with books and stationery, it was the perfect antidote to a week of hell.

We got back to the hostel in time for dinner, which included rice and noodles. Most exciting. It was very comforting to have Chinese style noodles for a change. They were oily just like from home. There was also this spicy potato curry that was amazing as well. I miss the chapattis of the Guest House though; they were good.