I am at Mishra Guest House. I paid Rs 150 for room 206 and I like this room better than others I have had. There seems to be no electricity despite many lights and switches and there is I hot water tap I have not tried but I doubt it works now.
I am near burning ghat and from my balcony I can see those beautiful sunken ruins north of that ghat. On the floor under and one over somebody hung some underwear out to dry on the rail and I saw a monkey go eat them. I wnet inside and saw a monkey outside my window so I quickly closed my door. I yelled at the monkey through my window and he did not even look at me. There is a monkey in the hotel. Deskman Rajeesh was yelling at it upstairs: it was on floor one (British counting). It walked toward me and I was very scared. I hope it is gone because I want to go out for food and water.
I think I may stay here tomorrow also before going to Sankatha on Thursday. North of burning ghat has slightly fewer tourists and that means a lot to me right now.
I had a good Hindi lesson last night. Abiji and Anu(ji?) are good teachers for now and maybe for a while. The first lessons were “malum nahi” for “I do not know” when I want to pretend not to know English. Another lesson was “Mujhko chay chahiye,” meaning “I want chai.” My vocabulary consists of words for food and hotel amenities. I regret not knowing more Hindi script. Omar does the same things as me but with Devanagari. I use flashcards and have about 75 words to learn by tonight, plus I want to use Hindi script soon.