12th September

Woke up this morning feeling like someone was using my forehead as a bouncy castle. Not an overly pleasant feeling. I have extra class this morning as well, and I don’t think this bodes well. Forced myself to have breakfast in the hope that the sugar will perk me up or something.
It didn’t.
Managed to get through one of my extra classes. It was on Samuel Johnson, for literary theory. It was quite interesting, and I think I could write a coherent answer on it in relation to Romantic theory or Aristotelian theory, which is always a nice sensation. I think we are only doing the Preface to Shakespeare, which is probably the longest tract, but I wouldn’t have minded doing some of the other stuff that is in the Norton as well. I might just go through it myself and use ‘wider knowledge’ as a secret weapon come exam time.
I didn’t make it to Udaya Kumar on Plato. I couldn’t…I was suffering too much in that damned room with all the damned aircon on and me freezing and in pain. I couldn’t even muster the energy to speak to my lecturer about my essay, so that can be Monday’s task instead. I feel more than a little bit pathetic, but I do not care. I am beginning to worry about these essays, especially seeing as I also have a history one due and then a timed question for English to do in class. I am sure I will get them done. I just hope they are actually good though. Here, 60% is considered an A, and seems virtually unattainable. The usual marks are in the fifties. It seems so strange to us, who would consider 60% ok, but not great. They think it is amazing. One guy I spoke to told me the highest mark he knew of was 75%. At home that is pretty good, but here that is mark of genius.
After English I met Amanda and Egle in Connaught Place. I had to be directed to the music shop they were in, and so this very friendly Indian guy took me there. It was really very nice of him, I hadn’t asked for a guide, only directions! He said what they all say: Indians are more famous for their hospitality and helpfulness than Westerners. This is true, but you still have to look out a bit. He had thought he had seen me the night before in a club (not as bad a line as “I saw your face in Connaught Place…*cringe*”) so perhaps he had slight ulterior motives. Either way he took me to the music shop and wandered off. CDs are very cheap here. It is about a fiver for the most expensive I saw, which was Dire Straites Live. An odd CD to have in an Indian music store but there you go.
We were in Connaught Place to find the yoga centre that we had seen advertised in First City, an amazing magazine that gives you complete listings of all the restaurant and bar deals going on and any free cultural events round the city. It turned out to be quite far from CP, and closer instead to Patel Chowk. We found it eventually, though the main entrance is secreted up a back street (as per.). When we got there the guard told us to go away as there was no one in and everything was locked. What was funny about this was that there were people inside the building wandering around. Not a very good lie when the building is made partly of glass. After five minutes of arguing, a man appeared and told us to follow him. Shocking how people come out of the woodwork and suddenly materialize inside locked buildings isn’t it? We got a timetable for yoga, and there is a class on every day at 4 to 5 or 5 to 6pm. Amanda and I can only go to one three times a week, so we are thinking Tuesday, Friday and Saturday or Sunday. It’s hatha yoga, so it should be nice and relaxing. I hope they don’t mind the fact that I am the most inflexible person on the planet and not able to touch my toes, let alone bend into shapes. It is only 100Rs for a month, so even if we don’t make it all the time, it is most definitely worth it.
By this stage I was feeling most definitely worse, so we came back to the hostel and went to AIM, where I had a restorative cup of ginger tea. That tea is like a lifesaver. Very spicy, very sweet and generally amazing for any cold. I think I should try to find some of it before I leave.
I came back to the hostel before the others and went to sleep until dinner. Dinner tonight was fairly exciting: there was a potato dish we had not seen before that is apparently the sort of thing you are meant to get in dhosa. To be honest, anything is exciting when it is different. We have decided that we need to begin trying properly in Hindi, so we are copying our notes out nicely and starting afresh. Perhaps we may even learn something.

11th September

Managed to speak to Prof Sanpathi about my assessments. He says I can do the essays, but also sit the internal assessment. So my first week of October is going to be fun and games. Thankfully my new friend Nitin (not Natel as I had previously thought) is going to give me some old question papers to look over. He also wants to take me to the library at the British Consulate; apparently it is really good. He also told me a fairly interesting thing about the professor I don’t like: Raj Kumar. He said the University was made to take him on despite him not being a very good lecturer. He didn’t tell me why, he only said it was the government that had made it so. Perhaps Prof Kumar is a product of positive discrimination. Either way, he is an awful teacher.

I think I am getting a cold. It has been raining here for two days now pretty much non-stop and it is the sort of rain that soaks you in a sly way and you never dry fully. Not nice.

When I came back to the hostel, Amanda wasn’t here. She has gone to AIM I suppose. I feel really tired, so I may sleep.

Slept for two hours. I haven’t done that since being here. Very odd. To perk myself up I ran 5km; it felt good to be somewhere near my former standard of running. Now all I need to do is slowly double it and we will be back in business. Did a little bit of my essay as well. I have a plan and my introduction written. Now all I need to do is make proper detailed notes on everything else and find good quotations. I am hoping to have it done by the middle of next week so that I can properly focus upon English, but we will see.

Looking on the net, and apparently five girls have been stampeded to death in their school. I find this at once horrifying and amazing. How does a girl get trampled in her school?? Apparently they were in a collision on the stairs with some boys from another class, but jesus God that is not enough to kill a child surely? And why was it even allowed to happen? Why were these children running with such force that they were able to do this? It is just horrible.

I got bored and came to AIM, where I am now sitting with some ginger tea. I managed to speak to mum and Susan, Granny and Grandpa and Iain all in one go, which is pretty good going connection-wise. I also had an affogato (espresso with ice cream) so I feel it has been a good evening. Think I will call it an early night though, because it may be only half nine, but walking down our road any later would be a bit silly. It is a busy residential street, but the motorbikes do get bolder in their ‘almost-hit-and-swerve’ pick-up tactics.

There were two elephants on the road on the way back. I love seeing these things lumbering along next to the buses and autos…so surreal.

10th September

We got back at three am and were a bit drunk. Not as bad as Lauren, who fell asleep in the auto home. She was being bought drinks by random men all night as well as the free mojitos. Possibly not a good plan, as she is still drunk now. I am evry glad we don’t have class today. The rain has cancelled everything. It rained all night, and now everything is quite flooded. It is strange, the rain isn’t heavy, just like it is at home but it is so constant that everything is just as soaked as it would be other wise.

Last night was great fun. We had about four or five free mojitos and hit the dance floor for hours. My thighs hurt this morning from the amount of dancing I did. We met a couple of really nice people whom Egle (the Lithuanian) knows and I met a guy form Rotheram and another from LA. The one from LA told me that he works for a production company that has been affiliated with Paramount pictures and that he used to work for Conde Nast. I don’t know if he was lying or not with some ulterior motive, but he was a nice guy. It was very funny, on the dance floor Indian men do the craziest moves; everything is straight out of Bollywood. But the guys from the UK and US danced like the boys do back home: awkward and slightly calculated to try and look cool. Where were the jazz hands? Where was the hip shaking and shimmying? Just not good enough.

Thankfully I am not hung over this morning. I think not drinking after midnight and having masses of noodles before going out was a good plan. I think I might be getting a cold though instead, which is not good either. Ah well. I have a quiet weekend writing an essay ahead of me anyways. Fun times.

Stayed in my room for most of the day trying and failing to work. Had to go to AIM just to get out of this damned place. I was distraught to learn that they had no pomegranate shakes. The old faithful has failed me! Consoled myself with a chocolate one instead. I also bought some noodles so that I can make myself food when I like rather than eating curry at the prescribed meal times all the time. Shall be good.

Lauren and I came home for dinner and for her to pack. She is off to somewhere up north (sounds like Napitka) for the weekend with Ward and Ben and some other folks. She has the advantage of having no class on Saturday and Monday, unlike Amanda and I. We have told her to take loads of pictures and to avoid Ward’s sleazy charms. Amanda and I were laughing about how in the sleeper carriage she might have to use Ben to protect her. It is consolation for us not being able to go. Spent the rest of the evening in Amanda’s room munching almonds and chatting about the fun-filled topic of the Indian Civil Service.
Spoke to my mum on the phone as well about my hair. She says I should maybe look to get some more vitamins in my diet, so I am eating as many bananas as I can get my hands on and drinking OJ. MUST BE HEALTHY!

Who am I kidding? There are no fresh vegetables in this place…If it ain’t curried it ain’t food.

9th September

Woke up this morning with a strange blister on my lip that popped. Not so cool. Perhaps I have been drinking too much chai or something.
My hair has started coming out again. This is getting ridiculous. I don’t know what to do about it.
I had no classes this morning, so I worked out and then Amanda and I went to AIM to get some toast before Hindi. It began to rain while we were in AIM, but left off once we came out to catch the bus. Once at the university though, it poured for ten minutes incredibly heavily, and so all the others got soaked on their way in. Hindi was complicated today. I need to start practicing it outside of the class as he is asking me things like what is quarter past two? And I have no idea. Not so good.
We stopped at Chinese Bowl, a little Chinese place on the way home. I got only a half bowl of ginger and garlic chow mein, and thank god I did because Amanda and Lauren hardly made a dent in either of their full bowls. I managed to maybe eat half and then gave up due to pain of being too full. It was terrible, we left so much food, but you like and learn. It was really nice, though the chow mein was super spicy and our mouths were on fire for quite a long time. Great value though: a huge bowl of noodles and chicken for only 65 Rs. It was raining again when we left. A sort of drizzling rain, not like the usual flash flood. I hope it doesn’t keep up, as you know what tonight is? Tonight is Ladies Night! I am so excited by this it is unreal. We ate early specially so that we had a good amount of food in us to soak up alcohol but not too late on so we have no food baby for going out. Genius plan.
I am going to wear my mirrored harem pants and ridiculous eye shadow and hope it stays on my face in the rain. It is a shame: South Delhi is the only place where we could get our legs out, but getting to South Delhi you need to take the metro from the north. And in the north, there are no legs on show. Every second girl is in salwaar or saree. It would create a scandal. The French people and the Lithuanian girls are coming out with us, so we will make quite a large group on the dance floor. It is going to be epic. We have our Bollywood moves primed and ready to go. Roll on Chori Bazari and Twist! (I suggest you youtube Love Aaj Kal soundtrack to get a perfect sample of the music we listen to.)

8th September

This morning I had a really interesting Plato lecture. It actually went into some depth on Plato’s ideas of imagination and also the Aristotelian ideas of imagination. It actually gave me something new to think about as well, which was a very pleasant and welcome surprise. My lecturer spoiled it though when I tried to state my essay plan to him and he told me to come back on Friday and that he would see what was happening. Perhaps this one has ideas, or maybe he just likes following rules. Either way, he couldn’t be bothered talking to me. So I tried to visit Professor Sanpathi but, of course, he was not in the office. At least the men in the office told me straight rather than pretend not to speak English. Perhaps the feigned ignorance is only for complicated requests.

My history lecturer has given us our first assignment. We have to write a very short essay on the Indian Civil Service, looking at what made it ‘colonial’. It is quite an interesting topic, as the methods of recruitment and the ideology behind it are very specific and important in the creation of the typical English Raj bureaucrat that rests in our minds: florid, out-doorsy, sporting, upper class, calculating, assured in his own physical and mental superiority.

After our class we caught the bus home and went to lunch, which was incredibly exciting. They had these vegetable ball things that I am fairly fond of in a very gingery sauce. After lunch I just went to the library and stayed their working until the late afternoon, when Lauren and I got bored and went out to AIM. I tried to skype my gran, but to no avail. The internet died soon afterwards anyways. It was really annoying. I would have liked to have spoken to dad or Iain. Dad called me to say that when I had tried calling him it was very awkward, as it had flashed up on the computer screen during someone else’s consultation in his room. They need to learn how to sign out.

Dinner was an unappetizing mush, so I had a chapatti to make up for it, my first in a while now. I generally only get rice, as it is better for the dal.

After dinner we were invited out to the French couple, Brunelle and Guillame’s flat for some drinks. We stopped at the Wine and Beer shop on our way up though, and got an awful lot of odd looks and a few proposals that were not very appetizing. There were about thirty men just sitting on the pavement and in a deserted house next to the shop drinking out of brown bags. You can’t display alcohol on the streets here, like California. On the way to their flat we passed through an area near by to ours that we had never seen that was full of little shops. I feel we should explore one day, as there were a few that looked quite interesting. We got lost a few times on our way, but finally Guillame found us and we went up to the flat. It is like a proper student flat, and felt very homely. They have one other flatmate: a French boy called Bruno, but he didn’t really speak to us. The other French girl who is en-route to Cambodia was there as well. She is leaving tomorrow morning early, and is a little bit apprehensive. Apparently she is finding it very difficult to get her rupees exchanged into dollars, the currency in Cambodia. I will have to remember this for when I am coming home and plan ahead to get rid of as many of my rupees as possible or else begin to exchange them by degrees as early on as possible.

It was a very pleasant evening I must say. They had snacks (olives!) and beer and everyone was in a generally very good mood. I think they are going to come out with us tomorrow night to Urban Pind. Guillame is an enthusiastic dancer it seems. I wonder if he will be able to keep up with the Indian guys and their ‘moves’. They have invited us to come round again and we will all cook pasta together. I feel a trip to Khan Market to find some good cheese in the European shops is necessary. Who knows? Perhaps we will even find Parmesan! It is good now we have been here for a while. We were thrown together, but it has become more than that now. Amanda and I have decided that in May once we are finished here we are going to take a long route home through Europe and go to Bologna and Madrid and maybe somewhere beachy in Spain as we have friends living there for the year. I am already excited about it.

7th September

I have decided that I no longer care what the English Dept think. I am going to corner my lecturers and state what I am going to do and if they don’t like it they can just suck it up. I am determined to spend the ten days in October with my family whether they like it or not.

My lecturers actually agreed! I managed to corner Prof Shikendu (not sure if that is how it is spelt) and Prof Chakrabati after their lectures and said I would like to do a two to three thousand word essay for the first week in October. Prof C has even invited me to meet him on Saturday to discuss possible topics! It is amazing. I think they had no idea what to do with me, so are actually fairly glad that I have suggested something myself.

I feel so relieved. Went to Barista and got a banana muffin to celebrate my victory. I was even awake for Hindi! And that never ever happens. We learnt how to write our names. It was all very interesting.

After Hindi we came home and pottered around for a bit. I managed to tell mum my good news about the essays and it is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Dinner tonight was fairly unexciting as well, though there was paneer, and I think I might have a small obsession.

Today has been a very uneventful day, save my lecturer conquest. To be honest, we are so tired after yesterday that doing anything today just wouldn’t have been possible. We have made a plan though to go to Urban Pind on Wednesday for Ladies Night: free mojitoes and free beer for girls! Amazing. Also the nice Bangladeshi girl Sabrine has invited us out on Saturday to an Indian ‘disc’ (disco)! It will be great to go out with them, I imagine their taste is as cheesy as hell.

6th September

We got up in the dark at half past five to get to the Taj Mahal for opening. We hadn’t appreciated in the dark how close everything was to us, so we literally walked out our hostel and 30 seconds later we were at the West Gate. Tried to convince the man at the ticket counter to give us an Indian ticket on the merit of our student cards but that went down like a lead balloon and they got quite aggressive and began to yell at us until we went to the foreigners booth. There were all these guys wandering around saying “Government approved guide!” which is code for scam-monger. Anything that says ‘Government Approved’ here is most likely not government approved and is most probably a scam for naive tourists. These poor Japanese people in front of us attracted the attention of one of the men and he hounded them for about half an hour and taking advantage of their broken English. It was a real shame. He did tell them something useful though: you get a free bottle of water when you go in the Taj from a stand next to the ticket office. This is a deal done by the people running the Taj thing themselves, so it is actually ok to drink it.
You go through a large red stone gate, like stone used at the Qutb Minar and the mosque in Delhi. There is white marble effacing even on these, decorated in an intricate flower pattern. You go into a kind of outer courtyard, then pass out of yet another red arch way into very lush green gardens. There is a red stone building to the left of you, and you go up the steps into it, it also being covered in the geometrically arranged flower patterning, and then pass out the other side and you see it. The Taj Mahal. A great shining white beacon against the dawn light. It was completely beautiful, far more than I had anticipated. There are several blocks of gardens lined with frangipani and dotted with rectangular pools that reflect the Taj Mahal and the red buildings that surround it completely accurately in the stillness of the water. As we walked forward, the dawn changed the colour of the white marble to blue, lilac and gold and the sky became a fantastic deep blue as the day set in. It wasn’t too hot, though there were many flies that you had to keep shooing off. There were hardly any tourists in the compound; we had been among the first six inside. We could take pictures with no one in them for a good half hour. There was dew in the grass as well, and we walked through, barefoot, as you have to take off your shoes. We walked around for hours, going up into the mausoleum itself and looking at the marble graves. Everything was decorated with the carefully painted flowers. It is a work of extraordinary craftsmanship. When it was completed the emperor had all the hands of the craftsmen chopped off so that such a thing could never be built again. It is strange, but now that we are here seeing this, I really feel an overwhelming sense of being “in India” that I don’t feel so much in the city. I suppose because the Taj Mahal is such a symbol of all the romance of the East that it really resonates in my mind as being particularly exotic. I think this might be Orientalist, which I find a bit amusing seeing as it is what I am interested in studying for the next year and a bit. I don’t know, I think I am just being a bit silly. Or maybe it just feels like I am on holiday here, rather than in the city where I live and work.
We came home from the Taj Mahal and went straight to sleep for two hours in the hostel. When we woke up we thought it was like 4pm, but it was actually half eleven. Decided to get to the train station as fast as possible incase there was a twelve o’clock train home. When we got to the station everyone was trying to direct us all over the place to get tickets from their friends rather than from the booth or to get us to take a taxi (!) back to Delhi. Ridiculous! We finally fought our way to the front of the queue though and got our tickets, which were surprisingly cheap at 62Rs each. All was revealed however when we got on the train at second class and they told us we all had to pay a fine of 330Rs each. We could have killed someone. So stupid! For future reference: if anyone sells you a ticket to/from Agra for less then 100Rs then you are being conned. You will get on a train and the conductor will appear and fine you. You argue with him for a long time and you get the fine down to an ‘upgrade’ whereupon he can no longer fill in his form to say he fined someone so he can pocket the cash instead. Complete money-making scam. An Indian guy who was sitting by us argued with him for a while on our behalf and in the end we paid 600Rs all together. Its still too much, but at least it wasn’t general class. Ben decided he would try out general class anyway and got into a nice routine with a man using spitting his pan (betel juice) out the window Ben was sitting by to try and steal his seat. A little boy with a painted face and a hat with a bead on it that he swung round as he walked came begging on the train. He had a tiffin tin and two sticks to make a make-shift drum kit. He stopped by us and beat the tin and I gave him a dried apricot and he did a backwards roll for me. It was quite cute. The Indians next to us gave him a packet of biscuits that he promptly put in his tin and wandered off, still swinging the bead. He was a cute little thing, and I was glad I had food on me. I don’t like giving money, because you don’t know where that will go. But if you give the kids food, you are pretty sure they are going to benefit from it themselves.
When we came back into Delhi, we girls made it back to the hostel just in time for afternoon tea. Lauren and I decided to stop and get an orange juice at the stall across the road from us beforehand. When we drank it though, it had salt in it! Absolutely disgusting. We had to subtly pour it in the gutter. I don’t think we are ever going back for shame. We need to know how to say ‘no salt’ in Hindi. Urgh. It is in everything here as well.
I managed to finish my book on the train, and it is was brilliant. It is so relevant to everything we are studying right now in history: the attitudes of the Europeans, the changing social structures of colonial elites, the cooperation of the native population in domination of the other. The other great thing about it is that it is entirely unsympathetic. You love and hate both English and native characters in equal measure. Each can be as evil, as shallow-minded and as ‘barbarous’ as each other in their methods. Flory, the main character of the book is a spineless and unlikable man, but he is the only character to show any kind of sympathy for the natives that doesn’t feel wholly Oriental in nature. Of course, such a man cannot exist within the colonial system and therefore he must be destroyed. Those that survive in this world are cunning, ruthless and assured of their racial and rank superiority of those they rule over. It is an incredibly interesting book, and I think I now need to go and read more Orwell as a matter of urgency. I should really read my history stuff first though and some more theory. Fun times!
There is apparently loads of confusion about my English mid-term assessment. No one seems to know what is happening, and as far as I can tell English and History depts. May actually be following different calendars and giving differently spaced mid-term holidays. I called mum to tell her about my difficulties as it may mean I can’t spend all my time with them when they are here, which would suck major ass. I am really annoyed and frustrated: why does no one ever know what is going on??? Argh.