Apologies for the bit of a delay in posting anything. Had a run in with some food poisoning. Good news is that I’ve narrowed down the suspect list to two culprits: Those momos from the hygenically-leaving-something-to-be-desired-stall or that Blackcurrant ice cream.

That said, things have progressed well from the Indian side of my research. I had a meeting with the teacher at the American Institute of Indian Studies, where I’ll be taking Bangla classes for 6 months, starting next Tuesday.

I anticipate I will have less interesting things to say in the near future as I move into a routine of heading to intensive Bangla classes M-F.

Two more limiting factors are that 1. we reached out internet cap here, so our ISP has dropped our speeds (for instance, I can’t check facebook—it’s too intensive). I’ll need the internet for transferring newspaper pdfs, and since the American center wifi doesn’t really exist, and good cybercafes are hard to come by, that leaves me in a bit of a pickle. Also, Airtel has a monopoly at Hiland park, which I painfully found out yesterday. Hey, I’m happy to have internet at all. 2. My phone service was discontinued because of some type of “problem.” After some frustration I realized I had to go to the main office in person to resume service. Alec doesn’t even have service yet because his signatures didn’t match up. There’s nothing we can do about these issues other than to “embrace the pace” of Indian bureaucracy. (Thank you program director Adam Grotsky, If I recall correctly, for these words)

Aside from my resource acquisition at Indian libraries and archives, which has gone well so far, I’m in search of access to a few international databases, specifically, adam mathews digital, which has a fantastic and transcribed database of 18th century papers, making searches and research much much easier. So if you are at UTexas Austin, Cambridge, Leeds, or Oxford, please send me an email!

Today I go to the Center for Studies in Social Sciences to meet a few professors I have been in contact with, and to check out their library. Tomorrow I go to Calcutta Walks, what seems a like a neat organization that offers historical and cultural walks around the city, and who I hope to partner with and design my own walk for them based on early newspaper in the city!