To be perfectly honest, I haven’t been updating myself every day. And my memory is terrible. That and I seriously feel like I spend my days doing much of the same things: eating, sleeping, watching terrible Clint Eastwood or Denzel Washington films, being in AIM café and the gym. What a sad little life I lead sometimes. It is because of these damned exams. When you are supposed to be studying it is difficult to justify a blog update. So here I am doing what every good student does best: breaking the conventions of the supposed increase in work the closer you get to an exam and instead writing this thing. Two days beforehand. Well done Claire.
A number of vaguely interesting things happened this week though, so I will tell you about them and spare the crap. It is strange, I am reading 18th century fiction for my exam on Monday, and in Fielding especially there is a concern as to how to write a novel and what the function of the writing should be. So there are many prefaces and such like throughout texts telling the reader that the author will pick out the most interesting pieces of a ‘history’ for the reader, and not recount the whole. Swift makes fun of this in Tale of a Tub with his huge number of Digressions and preface sections to show that these things are unnecessary and just a mark of a bad author who cant think of anything to say except to explain his supposed intentions every five pages. Ironically, I am currently doing just that. So, without further ado:
1. Lauren and I went to Dilli Haat finally on Monday. Dilli Haat is a closed off bazaar in south Delhi that is a mock-up of a traditional style market. The only differences (oh, so minor) were the entry fee (!), the wide spaces, the lack of dogs/cows/rickshaws/litter/sewers/motorbikes/tuc tucs/vendors/beggars, and last but not least, the greater proportion of the people in there were white. All the vendors spoke wonderful English, which unfortunately allows them to hassle you all the more effectively. It is just so frustratingly amusing when they yell at you ‘Yes madam! I have carpets/boxes/camels/scarves! You want the pink! Pink, I think you want!’ And then when you walk on by they follow you for a few steps waving said pink item and going, ‘Look only, just come see, what price you give me? I make cheap price for you!’ I did have to buy a few things as presents, so we were forced to stop in one of the empty stalls and be accosted by so many different scarves at once it was on my third attempt that I managed to pin point one long enough to buy it, as they kept heaping stuff on top of the merch they already had out and then taking it away. So confusing. The good prices promised were not so good. I think that might have something to do with the large number of white women in the place buying pashminas and Kashmiri cushions. We realised that we hate tourists. We don’t like being spoken to in English and ignored when we try Hindi. We don’t like not getting a fair price with haggling. We don’t like not being taken seriously when we say we are students of Delhi University and live in Muckherjee Nagar. We don’t like being lumped in with the other ‘Britishers’. All referred to as ‘You People’. It is ironic, as we are just tourists in all reality as well. I did manage to get some presents though and we got this lovely peanut brittle stuff from a nice man who let us try all his sweets for free. That perked us up. The autos outside were a laugh as well. They too decided that if you are a white girl coming out of Dilli Haat and going for an auto then you are a misguided and naive tourist who thinks they will attempt the quaint native transport that looks like such fun. They were trying to charge us 200 Rs for a fifteen minute (at most) journey to Central Secratariat. They giggled when we said we had come for sixty in a sort of ‘Oh ho! The girl will try to haggle! How nice!’ kind of way. Not cool. We had come for 60 Rs, which was already overcharging us by 15 bucks according to the meter. Went a bit further up the road though and got one for 50 Rs. Damned tourists.
2. Wednesday night was Colin’s last night with us. It is a real shame, as we really do like him. He is a massive American, but a good soul and fun to be around even if he is a bit ridiculous. He is going on a general trip and then home to California. The Americans are all here only for one semester unfortunately. We went to dinner before hand. Found an alright restaurant around the corner from our street called Rambel. Had lamb for first time in aaages. It was good to have meat. Afterwards we went to Colin’s place, which must be the most untidy flat on the earth. Sat around and drank and talked and listened to music. Ben brought one of his mates that he had met in India beforehand who was from Paisley and had even worked in a factory in Inchinnan. Couldn’t believe it. It is such a small world. it was sad to say good bye to Colin. I hope we keep in touch. I am sure him and Lauren will, she was his favourite I think.
3. On Thursday went into history class and had to stand around for ages waiting for our professor to get started. We are having essay discussions and I asked if I could go first, pretending I had an appointment. Truth is I just can’t sit through that. All the students just read their essays out or reiterate the same facts. They are just chronology machines. Do I know the exact date of the Peel Commission and who all were members? No. Do I know why there was a commission and the purposes and consequences of said commission? Yes. But some of the other students just seem to learn facts and then when challenged at all as to what they actually THINK any of it means, they just clam up. Not very conducive to a ‘discussion’. I also couldn’t be very much bothered with the class after being told that I looked sleep deprived by one of the boys and then being asked where the other ‘2 or 3’ were. It went like this: Boy – “Is there not usually two or three more?” Me – “Sorry?” Boy – “You know, tow or three more….uh….usually there are more in class than just you” Me – “Is everyone else in here not taking part in class??” Boy – “Oh yes…never mind…I mean…I cant remember their names…” Me (slightly irritated by now that he hasn’t just come out with ‘white people’ and got over it) – “You mean the other exchange students?” Boy (visibly relieved) – “Oh! Yes! You people! There are more!” The immortal phrase: “You People”.
4. Managed to disconnect myself from Vodafone. It took a long time and was very stressful. They didn’t believe that I wasn’t Lauren for some time and then when they finally decided I was in fact, not Lauren, having my own passport and all, took ages to find any of my details on the files and delete them. They weren’t very satisfied with my excuse that I was going home. I just knew that if I said I was getting cheaper net then that would have invited three hours of being told about the possible plans I could have to make it a little cheaper for me. Last time we complained something was too expensive per month we were offered a personal loan ‘at very good rate’ because we were his friends and he trusted us to pay him back on time. It was very weird and not too good.
5. Went for dinner at Bercos on Friday night. Ben is away tomorrow to Gujarat, so won’t see him for a month or so. The food there is alright I have to say, and Gin and Tonic is only 100 Rs. Lauren and I ended up drinking a few of them in quick succession, then had strawberry daquiris, which were gooood. After Bercos we traversed the outer circles of Connaught Place searching for a place called Live Bar. It turned out to be behind B block. It is a very stylish bar-restro with a great DJ who has a penchant for MJ and old hip-hop and funk. They also have a live band, who can not only play and sing well, but do requests. We had Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, ‘La Bamba’, Elvis…ah. I was in my happy place. Lauren and I were all for a dance but there is unfortunately no floor there. Major fail point, but you cant help but bop around madly in your chairs. At one point though, the guys all went outside for a smoke and Lauren and I were left with The Couple, Woeter and Laurriane. It was terrible. She was all over him. The poor guy tried to make conversation but Laurriane had a point to make: she kept on turning his head to look at her and giggling like a little girl. So they just made out. I had to pee as well, so poor Lauren was sat with that to look at for a good minute. I felt bad, but it had reached desperate stages and I couldn’t help but go. It was a bit rude. I mean, sure, have your romance and stuff, but if there is one other person with you at least have the goodness to try and make conversation for the two minutes they have to suffer. Either way, we had a great time. Though the drink is very expensive, I think we will be back, we enjoyed it so much. I will need to bring Iain and prove that Delhi isn’t all Bollywood and bad fusion music.
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