87th

Having breakfast in another beautiful little restaurant just off the beach. Last night we stayed up chatting with some Germans and a Norwegian and he was telling us fantastic stories about polar bears and days that have nineteen hours or sunlight. He said that last year two men went up to the north of the country and didn't put bells around their tent and one of them was carried off in a polar bear's jaw by his head. His friend woke up and had to fire seventeen shots into the bear to make it drop it's meal. I wonder why that didn't make the international news.

It's more than a bit like heaven here, I wish you were all with me enjoying it too.

Breakfast in kushes

PHOTO EDIT:

Exporting coconut shells

Jana 

Daniel

The other Jana

Impromptu dance times

Didn't realise I was this sweaty

... definitely remember how sweaty he was though

Izzy flirting with Jana through photos

"In Norway..."

Complete poi concentration

83rd

Lodi gardens for morning walk, here I come!

Edit: now that was far more successful. I finally got all of my movies from Kruttika and didn't get too scammed on the autos. However, I am now already a quarter of an hour late for our office meal to celebrate finishing Dancescapes. And am nowhere near the restaurant.

I finally feel like I can be excited about Goa. Alka has decided that it doesn't matter if I complete the whole essay because I've done so much and she's got so many ideas. Naturally I feel bad as it's not completely finished, but I could plausibly finish it in these last two days.
I also very almost got the money from her to go to Paris for the exhibition that the K S text is for, and that's very exciting!

Edit: am on the way to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Noida. I've never seen a city being built before. It's quite amazing!

Edit: just went to a stimulating feminist discussion centring around a piece called Record/Resist by Sheba Chharchhi. A few of the people who spoke seemed yo want to reminisce but since the piece was made from photos of protests over twenty years ago, I suppose that is inevitable. The artist made it quite an open discussion by seating us in a circle and asking people to speak at random. Most of these people were feminists invited by her, but the guy next to me who was just a young student was asked, so I became very worried that I would be asked as I had no contribution. As soon as it looked like I wouldn't be asked I immediately thought of some things to add. For instance: that Delhi seems to be an ideal site for feminism as the traditional people who come from the country to the city are brought up so differently to the urban population that it throws up questions as to how the movement can successfully educate despite diversity. Also that things like the separating of women in the metro seems to be reactionary as by splitting up men and women it divides rather than unites the sexes through forced genial interaction. Having a female coach seems to say that women need to be protected by the state as they're not strong enough to look after themselves.

PHOTO EDIT:

Pedestrian bridges in Delhi

The building of Noida

Alka's new house in Noida

Beautiful spiral staircase

The servant's quarters.. crazy.

77th - everyday...

... I am amazed by the colours, paces, beauty and diversity of this city.
... I will see/ hear/ smell/ feel/ taste something completely novel to me.
... I know how lucky I am.

There was an odd feeling in the house when we came back last night. It can't have been because we were very late as it was before 10. We hadn't missed any phone calls and we had called ahead to say that we would be eating with them. I can only assume that they still think we should be enjoying their company inside the house every waking hour that we can, despite the clear difference in our personalities that the trip to the Punjab made apparent. Either that or they'd been bitching about us all night and when we arrived they realised they had to stop their sport.

I didn't do much to ruin the evening though. We had seen Vikram Seth at Spring Fever and he had 'turned us to five year olds' by reading from his Beastly Tales. I felt a similarity in his writing to Roald Dahl and his voice really put me at ease.

Izzy turned up in the afternoon, proud, as she had found a mosquito net for Goa and I forced her to walk a little more and accompany me to McDonald's so that I could use the WiFi there. Unfortunately, you have to buy something to use it, so we bought soft serves and aloo tikki burgers. The latter cost 28 rs (that's less than 40p) and are far nicer than the veggie burgers. I got to update the blog with my Punjab adventures and I feel cleansed of them.

These photos are my sights from this morning on the way to the metro from where I am writing this post.

76th

I have not neglected this blog, I have been writing posts while in the Punjab and some of them are quite good. EDIT: I have gone to an internet cafe today and uploaded them all and am still to do a massive picture post from my time there later.

For today all I have to write about is my getting in to work early due to me having to make up lost time (more on this in later (earlier) posts) and that I had the courage and time to take some photos of my surroundings on my journey in to work this morning.

Here they are:

A classic Delhi street decoration

Where the ice cream trolleys live

These two drums sit outside the small slum on the way to the metro and never seem to be moved. I don't think they're for sale either.

Eye catching bright sari

Throwing cards around seems to be a big hobby here, I find a few odd card almost every day.

This song has been in my head all day because of how nice it is outside.

Photo edit:

I think this may have been lying, but still...

Watching and listening to Vikram Seth at Spring Fever

The man himself