Today is Eid! Happy Eid to all Muslims!

We have no classes today as it is a national holiday. So instead Amanda showed me 2 of the ashtanga yoga sun salutations. Perfect way to start the day. We then went out to AIM and sat in there for about 6 hours. We need to stop living in their café. One good thing about it though was that I got to talk to Iain for ages on Skype, which was nice.

I have resolved to go to Goa in December before I go home for Christmas. I have to try and convince my English professor that I am going home at the end of November so I shall get my exam done before then. I am so excited by the prospect of lying on a beach somewhere for four days. All the pineapples and coconuts and seafood! Amazing. It is completely and totally worth flying there and back in four days for lying on that beach, and swimming in the sea...oh, to have cold water on my body! There is never any water here these days...I have had a shower under a tap three time in past week. Not nice.

Because it is Eid, tonight is a special dinner for us. We had though about going out to Chandni Chowk, but there is not much point for women I don’t think. The Muslim girls in the hostel have arranged a talk and dance for us as well, which is very sweet of them.

The talk was given by the Afghani girl next door to me. She told us about Eid and why it is celebrated. Apparently Eid is a celebration to mark the victory of Mohammed over someone whose name escapes me. So the fasting before Eid is a show of self-discipline and respect to the achievements of the Prophet, and then on Eid you eat huge amounts of sweets and give presents and celebrate. Apparently women were not really included in celebration until recently, which I find unsurprising somehow. After the talk, Mehrnoush, a girl from Iran, did a very elegant dance for us. Her dancing was great and she looked fantastic up there, but I find it so ironic that in Iran women aren’t allowed to dance in public. Evidently she has found a way, as her dancing was practiced and not unprofessional. The Iranian girls have not been fasting: their Eid is in March apparently. I had no idea it changed form place to place. After her dance we were given little Indian sweets, including the one I really like that is made out of canned milk and is a bit like fudge, only less sugar and more pistachio and almonds. It is sort of like a cross between vanilla fudge and marzipan with a bit more milk in it. Either way, it is very tasty.

Special dinner was also very tasty. There was salad, and roast vegetables, and chicken that wasn’t only bone! It was pure luxury. The kitchen really went all out on it. There was even proper naan and paneer. Amazing. Unfortunately Lauren, who had already had noodles in AIM, felt a bit sick after all the food and had to go lie down. Amanda and I though stayed down, as it is a girl from Sri Lanka’s birthday tomorrow and she had bought cake from the very bakery that Nitin told us about. It was amazing cake: very rich and creamy and not at all artificial. We are going to have to go there asap.

Went to check on Lauren and she says she is too hot. I hope she will be ok. Everyone here is sick some day or another.