I wish I could sleep in! I had another weird chest pain last night and I have no idea what is causing it. It was incredibly painful however, and I couldn’t sleep for ages. Weird. There were two peacocks on my balcony however, and that made me happy beyond everything. When there is exotic wildlife to be had, I am easy to please.
Yet another Fielding lecture that was entirely on the narrative. I don’t understand why the people in the class haven’t read the text and so she feels the need to go through it. it is incredibly annoying and leaves no time for development of the ideas contained within the text. I know we are only a few weeks in, but still, there should be more than this at post-graduate level. My history lecture on the other hand, was a wonderful lecture as usual. I really enjoy his class, especially when he gets really into what he is saying about half way through and his voice gets really loud. You can tell he is an old Marxist as well, its quite encouraging really. He gave us sheets today telling us what batch we would be in for assignments and when they would be due. Our first is due in on the 29th September I think and the second on the 20th October, so I will need to make sure I am incredibly up to date or I will be in trouble for it, as I think I will have other essays in October as well. Everyone is visiting in October…most inconvenient! If only they had picked different months at least! My family are coming on the 8th, and Kapil is here from the 4th till 8th, but I guess I can get some work done in that time, and the couple of days my family will be in Agra, as I don’t know if I will go with them because of these essays. It’s all slightly problematic.
Went to Barista for some lunch and discovered they do an awesome peach smoothie with yoghurt. A very welcome change to all the ice cream, and a nice perk before Hindi. I didn’t fall asleep as badly as last time, possibly because we spent the entire lecture talking about food and sweets. I found it funny when he told us that Indians have a light breakfast in comparison to the West, as they only have tea/coffee/hot milk, and toast and jam, and cereal or porridge, and eggs or something hot (cooked by the women, he specified). Not heavy at all…
When we got back to the hostel Amanda came by to use the net. Apparently Lauren’s has stopped working now, and we are afraid that they have cancelled her contract now that mine is working, but hopefully not. Surely they are not so stupid…(fingers crossed). Ate more cashew nuts and apricots than I think is good for me (they are too moreish) and then went for a wee gym time, seeing as I didn’t go yesterday. Here, it is quite satisfying that 40 minutes on the cross-trainer makes you sweat more than an hour at home. Makes you feel like you have achieved a lot more than you actually have. Dinner was exciting tonight as well: parantha and chickpea dhal…I though I was in heaven. I had to get two helpings to satisfy the cravings.
After dinner we watched Breakfast on Pluto, which made me very happy. We have to watch films with the fan off, which is hard as you start to sweat buckets in seconds, but worth it for this. My laptop doesn’t have great speakers, so we were all crowded round it. Lauren has found out that Colgate tooth powder (??) cleans silver jewelry really well, so I have finally removed the layer of grime accumulated on my silver bangle and necklace. It was completely rank I have to say. All the pollution and the water must just get to it. I suppose if it makes our skin go black, it isn’t too surprising that it does the same to clothes and jewelry.
It began to storm during the film. The lightning was incredibly bright, and the rain poured down like nothing I have yet seen. The wind was really strong as well: a proper storm. My room even got slightly flooded, as my balcony must have flooded so it all seeped in onto my floor. I now have a couple of pairs of my trousers that needed a wash soaking it all up. At least this place is so hot that it will probably dry in five minutes anyway. The corridor by Lauren’s has two inches of water in it. It’s completely crazy, and hopefully it will mean tomorrow might be a little cooler. Tomorrow is the student elections, so class has been cancelled. Finally there will be an end to all the demonstrations and the protests outside the lecture halls. The amount of passionate chanting I have heard in the past five days has been insane. The students here do thing so differently to Edinburgh: they affiliate with political parties and create separate parties themselves. The political parties then fund their activities and campaigns; something that would never happen at home. There are all these airbrushed posters around the place as well, completely strange to we foreigners. In Edinburgh such militancy would have you disqualified. There is certainly no outright party allegiance. I have learnt that ABVP are BJP, that NSUI is Congress, and that SFI are probably communists, or at least very leftwing. I think I like them most, as they seem to be the only one relying on student support rather than outside support. It also means I might get a lie in, in pigeons and my body allow me it.
There are more explosions. I don’t understand why you would set off fireworks in dregs of a storm…I guess weddings are too important to think about such paltry things as weather.
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