14th September

It is hot again. It must be like...34 degrees. I was even sweating while walking. I don't want a return to the hot old days...Bring back the rain!

Today’s class on Swift was very good. I enjoy Shishenku’s lectures a lot actually. I spoke to him briefly afterwards about my essay and said I want to do something on knowledge as a discourse of power and he said that it was a little general. So, I have revised this to include the Foucault theory in the question. Not so general after all. I think it will focus mainly upon the Digression Concerning Madness, but I hope to bring in a couple of other textual examples. Gautam’s class, my other good professor, was less interesting today. This could possibly be due to the fact that we are going through Samuel Johnson and I am not a large fan. Also, there were two boys sitting behind speaking like they were out of a Wilde play. They used words like ‘futility’ and ‘tiresome’ and spoke in a hilariously put-on English accent. At first it was so silly I thought they might have been trying to tease me for being British. But no, they actually were speaking to each other seriously in the voice. It was ridiculous. I wanted to turn round and ask them if they really thought English people ever spoke like that if they weren’t gay or an idiot. Tanya says she thinks one of them is gay; he was certainly the most annoying and up himself. The other was inviting him out and he was just acting like it was all too beneath him to condescend to grace the other with his presence. He deserved a whack. Next time I might ask them.

Tried to get some books out form the library, but of course, it was closed. Went to Barista none the less and sat reading about the Civil Service instead until Hindi. Hindi today was actually quite good. I surprise myself with how much I can say. We can now do future tense and ‘I want’ or ‘I can’, which will make asking for things a lot easier. I don’t think we know the verb ‘to have’ yet though, so that complicates things.

After Hindi I go the bus home and sat in my room, trying to muddle through my essay and eventually giving up to go for a run. Lauren has gone to Khan Market to meet Stephen. She is annoyed with him, as he has just got back to Delhi from Nepal and says he is bored. How can you be bored in this city?! There are a million things to see and do, some of them free! She went none the less, and she is bring me home some mueseli, so I can have some respite from masala omlette every single day.

Dinner tonight was exciting. It was a potato and cabbage thing, and there was chicken and the paneer balls…I ate so much. I could see the guy in the mess looking at me every time I went for more (twice) in a sort of ‘haven’t you got your share yet??’ kind of way. It was good. I haven’t eaten that much in one go for a while. I then proceeded to eat half a pack of digestives as well. Amanda helped, but it really doesn’t detract from the overall splurge. I think I needed it.