Got the train which was fun, ended up sitting with a few different people. The most significant of which were two girls going all the way to dehli who I’d agreed to ‘look after’ (they looked after me and laughed at me A LOT ?) a german hari kristnia monk who’d lived in germany for 20 years and two indian guys who were nice. Got in trouble with both the indian guys, one of them I got in trouble with for asking the indian girls there age as aparently its rude…. He forgave me very quickly and the other indian guy got a little offended when I tried to guess his age and I said 32 and he was 25. this would have been ok except I didn’t believe him and thought he was winding me up!! He forgave me too although he was never the same after this moment. Other highlighs on the train include : brushing my teeth with the door open as we go through amazing countryside (didn’t see to much country side, but cleaning teeth and looking at it is cool) . being told by a police man that I wasn’t allowed into the engine room :- ( when I tried to get in. managing to get a coffe at 10 in the evening from a station and adding a healthy dose of brandy to it. Beating the monk at chess twice. Loads of fun stuff happened on the train. I love traveling (I don’t mean liike traveling I mean going places by transport – comes from a childhood spent in a car, driving up and down so often I guess) I loved the journey. Slept two nights on the train, read a good book. It’s called ‘surely your joking mr fennyman’ and it’s a true story about a physacist (better than it sounds – he likes topless bars;- ) I also made some head way on the history of india book which I can’t wait to finish.
Got to dehli a bit tired and smelly and before I got a hotel decided to see if I’d been contacted by the guy from face india (manoj). He hadn’t emailed me back so I called him (it turned out I had emailed him a blank email so he hadn’t bothered to email me back … opps). When I called him he told me to come to faridabad straight away and I did. Its only a 30 minute train journey away but it took me 3 and a half hours to get there as no bloodly person in the entire train station could tell me the right platform for the train!! (got a little angry) I got on the wrong train twice and was lugging my back pack every where, not a happy chappy. Got to faridabad and called manoj he turned up another hour later!!!!! Was chilled out by now though so it wasn’t a problem except every rickshaw driver was convinced that I would change my mind and need a rickshaw any minute so they were following me like a pack of dogs. Was funny. Manoj turned up and he is a great guy. Offered me a choice of accomodation (I’m currently residing in the face india offices on a pull out bed) and took me to his house for dinner. His wife cooked great food and we chatted. Went for a walk when I got back to the office and although I’d agreed to have a meeting with manoj at 10 oclock I fell asleep.
Unluckily for me I told him a little white lie to give him the impression that I was a grafter. I told him I’m use to waking up at 6 in the morning…. So this morning I got woken up a guess what time.. 6 in the fucking morning.. (my own fault:). Had a wash with cold water and got ready. Manoj also works at a school and invited me to go with him and I accepted (first we had another lovely meal at his house, cooked my his delectable wife). I though school was going to be really boring as it started quite slow and a little bit uncoumfortably. Firstly I was dressed like a complete scruff. No shave, flip flops, baggy trousers and my silly green jacket. Manoj got me to wear some of his shoes (that made me look even worse in my opinion) so I was feeling a little self consious before I’d even met the principle of the school, then the chariman, then the sectretary then half the teaching staff.. they were all lovely and I had some good chats with the staff. They let me go and speak to a couple of the classes. The first class were learning about the french revolution and the ideas of liberty espoused by it. I deceided I was an expert and told them every fact I knew about the revolution – the statue of liberty in new york was a gift from france, that france sepereated religion and the state to have a secular governement and I told them about how america use to have the same ideals untill in changed the countrys motto to include the line ‘in god we trust’ and I tried to get them to have a discusion on india secular politics with a little success. Was nice enough untill at the end I said ‘is there anything else you want to know’ and after a few rubbish general question one cheeky little imp asked me to sing a song!!!! I started to sing wonderwall by oasis but stopped after a couple of seconds (didn’t want to get arrested for abusing children :-0
Second class was different. Same sort of thing apart from they were learning economics so I tried to share my knowledge and find out what they new about the subject. Got interesting when one of the kids pointed to a big stick on the chair in front of me. Turns out the kids get beaten. I’m not a big fan of corporal punishment as I think theres always a better way without violence but I’m sure there are some people who would have benefited from the cane (Ria for one; ). I asked the kids if they liked the cane (duh .. they said no) so I told them to do something about it. They said that it wasn’t possible so I told them not to be so silly of course it was possible, I used the example of indians getting rid of england as their ruler and the more obvious example of the cane being baned in england. I was trying to inspire a revolution don’t know if it’ll work but I think the teacher got scared as he moved me on very quickly. After that I played basket ball with some of the kids and took part in shooting class as well (I’m a crack shot ) did other stuff to so was a good day. After school (which finishes at 2.00) went back to office so I could start planning some work as I’m still not 100% what I’m suppose to be doing but I have a good plan to find out. Bought some new cloths to make me smarter as well as coffeee making equipment so I can drink coffee and work. Ate some chilli corn for dinner which was nice and now I’m on the computer.
Oh one other think happened today which was brilliant. Snuck out of school for a fag (I’d already had one on the roof but didn’t want to risk that again) and walked to a village. All the villagers came out and were really amazed to see me. Eventually one of them offered me a cup of chai (tea) and I accepted. Was really good fun and all their family turned up. There must have been ten people who came to see me and though I was brilliant had a great time although they couldn’t speak any english and my knowledge of the hindi language now stands at an impressive two words (hello and move)
extras
Will be living in this office for a while now and there isn’t much to do during the night apart from work and sleep so will probably be online quite a bit.
Mumbai (a city in india) has just been bombed. I’m know where near it but I walked past the taj hotel (where hostages were taken)while I was there
the good thing about the bombings is that the english cricket team has decided to end there embarrasing tour of india
hope this job works out the way I want it to as it could be amazing
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