65th - photos

I didn't feel like I had anything interesting or new to write yesterday. I thought that nothing new had happened, when actually every day I experience something completely new and unique and worth writing about. The trouble is my memory, mainly. Does blaming parts of your personality still count as a poor workman blaming his tools?
Another reason for this depression may also be that I am thinking of how soon it is until I go back home. This is a tricky one to explain. I am missing England, and lots of things about it. But I am not missing being in England. I feel like I have become a better, stronger person out here and when I think about going back home I feel like I'll become the person I was before I left, before any of this experience happened to me.
I am also aware that I'm writing this blog as if I'm writing for somebody else to read, not myself. My next challenge is to cahnge this.

Izzy booked her tickets to Goa yesterday. I am going to book mine today. I'm going to have to book a plane though, rather than a train, as I'm worried about missing my home flight due to a delay while travelling hundreds of miles across this huge country. It's funny to worry about this stuff while also realising that missing the flight would be a god-sent.

Fortunately, after saying that I wouldn't write about the heat the sun has run away, and instead it is cloudy and humid, and the flies and mozzies are out. We had a good look at the Malaria Map yesterday and weighed up whether it was worth going to Goa with the increased risk of catching it that this would come with. The idea of being on beautiful beaches won. If I get malaria it's due to my hedonism and stupidity!

The song that's been going round and round in my head is 'You Remind me of Home' by Benjamin Gibbard, it always happens when I think of returning to Sudbury. Especially the line 'You remind me of home, in a suburban town with nothing to do, patiently waiting for something to happen'

Working on Sunday after visiting the Garden of Five Senses. No rest for the wicked.

Aloo parantha and pickle at lunchtime yesterday. I haven't written about food for ages, probably because I've been eating at the house a lot. Auntie tried to get me to pay her to make my lunch as well, but I resisted because I wanted one meal a day not to be dal and chapati. I still love it though.

In the front of the Vikram last night. Four men in the front of what is, to all intents and purposes, a big rickshaw. In one of the rickshaws the guy who sits next to the driver has him changing gear between your legs. Always a pleasure, never a chore.

This morning at Govindpuri station. Getting a quick read in before the metro arrives.

I missed the shot in which this guy was lying underneath the cab. It looked so sketchy.

Koi carp love lillies.

38th

I've been chasing this girl for two days for a house in Hauz Khas and nothing doing, no response. I got a first message back but then nothing. Mandy said she thinks I came across a bit desperate. The place is perfectly located as well.
I have been in contact with other people so hopefully this will lead to something a little more fruitful.

I walked the whole of Jan Path last night and worked up a monster appetite for when I got back. Delhi is becoming normal to me and I am hardly seeing anything on the street that surprises me anymore. Apart from this semi destroyed shelter in the middle of a very nice housing district.

EDIT: At the (very real) risk of this becoming a food blog, here are two photos from lunchtime on this day.

This veg chowmein from Ganesha is not only great value (66p for a massive plate) but has just the right amount of soy and chilli in it

I can't explain the excitement that I - a Roald Dahl lover and chocomaniac - got when I first opened a bar of Cadburys here and there was this beautiful golden foil covering it. It actually makes it taste better :)

Sixteenth.

Today has felt very long.
I had to be at Alka's for ten but was late due to the metro, forgetting the photos and the bus to South ex always gets caught in traffic. However, when I got there I was able to remind all in involved that the meeting with Shobha was at 12 rather than 11 (1st time my memory has ever been better than anybody else's).
The meeting with Shobha was just as expected. Long and slow. BUT there was a monkey outside which I took a few pictures of and felt sorry for because he was tied up. The reason, I was told, was that because of his hierarchy in the monkey world he scares off other pesky monkeys in the area. You know, street monkeys. Obviously.
We had two separate meetings with Shobha punctuated by a long lunch break. I wandered down to the fast food place where we had chaat the other day and got mixed pakoras. There's so much food to try it boggles my mind.
My office feels quite lonely now that Keith's not there and there's no exhibition up. They did leave something quite welcome behind though. A set of portable speakers! Now I need to find an American to Indian adaptor and I am in business! It works at work but not in my room, which is where I need it most. Also, along that line of thought, if anyone has any audio books they can send me via email then that'd be swell! Thanks in advance.

Ninth day

Today I went it to work late and got myself some of Sitaram Dewan's chand chole bhature beforehand. Its a chickpea curry that comes with bhature - a flat bread stuffed with herbs and garlic (I think). I got my hair cut too. Its the shortest its been for ten years.
The old boy I met yesterday was in the gallery again. His name is Keith. He told me that he Rollerblades and that he goes to Manchester skate park and can do the hip into the half-pipe and some stalls. He's at least sixty-five. What a guy.
I had a McDonald's today, on purpose. Its been a while since I had any Western food and I felt like my system needed to have a bit of a relax. I should have had pizza. Man, more food talk!
Alka hooked me up for a walk this Sunday despite it being fully booked. It is nice being so well connected.
I feel a lot better today, no deja vu. Probably due to the long talk with mum yesterday. It is nice talking in English with no limits on understanding. And I was probably a little homesick too.
The photo is with the guy that works the 7 til 7 am shift at the hotel's rooftop restaurant every night. His English is very good so he was helping to translate between me and these other two Hindi guys who were up there. His parents live in Uttar Pradesh and are farmers but he works here because there's more money to be made.