filth

I am dirty, filthy and covered with grime and dust. My white shirt is now almost the colour of sand, and I think I actually walked around half the day with black smears on my face, without anyone mentioning it. I have given up even trying to look pretty, and one would have thought that looking like having being dragged through a muddy field would've been the perfect disguise for a woman travelling on your own in India, but no; somehow the local men see through all the muck and STILL treat me as either a juicy steak to be devoured, or a lesser being whose presence doesn't even deserve to be acknowledged. I am pretty tired of being a woman right now.