2 February
First journal entry (p. 8-11)
In this journal entry the narrator writes down her first impressions of India which seem like her thoughts.
She arrives in Bombay, where she stays in the S.M. (Society of Missionaries), but is still on English time. The first- person narrator tells us something about her expectations (e.g. that everyone steels in India), which shows us that she has many prejudices and doesn’t really know the country.
The narrator’s neighbour, also a woman in the dormitory, tries to explain the Indian way of life to her. The woman looks like a ghost, but tough, is very religious and has been in India for 30 years. She tells the narrator something about the city and the culture. It turns out that the Indian food is very different from the English (the food in the S.M. is much better; Miss Tietz, a Swiss woman, is the cook) and that India is a terrible, dirty country. She also tells her that there’s not much/no hope for anyone in India. There are many poor Europeans who go the same way like poor natives.
Thereupon the narrator takes a look down into the street where she can see many poor people who have to search for food in gutters (however, some are able to pay for it) and sleep on the street.
When she looks through the other window, she catches sight of many poor, also young Europeans. The ones who aren’t able to pay for an apartment, have to sleep on the street as well. In her neighbour’s opinion their only hope is to turn back home, because who stays gets worse the longer he stays; they become sick and some are even dying.
The woman in the dormitory has seen nearly everything you can see on this earth and gives one example for a terrible sight: a German or Scandinavian with a monkey. She tells the narrator that she saw ‘a soul in hell’. She believes devoutly in God and considers that there’s still hope for the ones who believe in Him, because there’s no way to live in India without praying to Him.
After this conversation the narrator looks down into the street again and also sees those ’souls in hell’.
