I just woke up. I realized last night at my Hindi class that my water uptake is up to about seven litres a day and still I am thirsty. Abiji told me that I should stay warm so I asked for an extra blanket and I was warm last night. Also I will wear my coat about.
I will stay in Mishra guest house again. I do not feel like changing. It is a good location but I am scared of monkeys. I have a bit of a cold and cough but now, at this point in my life, the source of most of my worries and concerns is the presense of monkeys.
Last night I awoke to find that a monkey sat on my face. The night air is cold and only my face is exposed when I am in bed, and I felt fur, and warmth, and pressure of weight. I tried to come up with a plan. It seemed that the monkey had been stationary for some time and that it was possible that it would remain so for a bit longer. I decided thta I would take no action until such time as the monkey moved, at which point I would throw the monkey toward the foot of the bed by lifting the topmost edge of the blankets and pushing it and the monkey off my body. I am using a chair as a nightstand; I would need to dodge it on my way to the bathroom where I would close the door.
I considered the possibility that the monkey came in through the bathroom window, which was likely as I felt no additional draft. So upon barricading myself in the bathroom I will be left to deal with an angry monkey trapped in my room without even a roll of toilet paper to throw at it.
But this was some sort of waking dream. I was surprised that I came up with such an elaborate scenario in a state of half-sleep, and that it seemed real for long enough for me to actually think all this through. I had never before had my mind altered in such a way by a fever, or whatever it is that I have.
So there was no monkey.
I feel congested but not bad. I do have a cold. I like my tabla lesson but did not find time to practice last night. This morning when I go out I will go to the practice room before I go to the lesson.
In Hindi lesson I learned adjectives for food and people. I learned numbers – I need more flashcards. I had trouble finding proper paper stock, but I do not doubt that I will find it. Everything is here.
Last night Abiji had to refill the ink on his dry erase marker. He said, “This is how it is in India.”
His pen had a metal casing. I have seen only plastic previously. He produced a box containing a bottle of ink, shaped like an India-ink bottle, but with dry-erase ink. He used an eyedropper to saturate a plastic tube containing a spongy substrate. He then reassembled the implement. I told him I had never before seen that done.