Waiting and Then Some

Current Locae - Bangalore, India

In India everything works on a clock much more confounded than in any other country I've ever been.
Sure, when it's five o'clock, it's five o'clock...but when you're told that whatever-you-ordered (food, taxi, books, water, internet...) is meant to arrive or be available at said five o'clock hour that doesn't necessarily mean you'll have anything in-hand at five o'clock or even today's five 'o'clock for that matter.
It might come tomorrow, it might come next month.
It's up to you to guess just when it might come though, because if you're not home when they do decide to show up it's another waiting game all over again. And if it's raining, which happens more often than not during the three to six months that we call 'monsoon season' here, rather than 'spring' and 'fall' well then, don't expect to get much of anything done because the current cuts on a sporadic basis and with no warning at all.
Actually, that's true when it's sunny too...

This is good to keep in mind as a foreigner living and traveling in India - it's also an excellent exercise in patience...something most of us from the west can stand a bit more of, I think.
I've become much more Zen toward just about everything out of sheer necessity.
It's often incredibly annoying, but some kind of comforting...this way of life - coming to the realization that there is absolutely nothing more important in the world than what's right in front of you, wherever you are, at any moment...namely: love.

There are days when we don't have internet or hot water and the grey-heavy skies rumble and pour rivers into the roads outside and all I can say is, 'Oh well...what to do?'
And so we stay in bed in our pajamas and laugh and watch DVD's and drink tea and listen to music and watch AliG ripped from our favourite copyright infringement portal and smoke too many cigarettes and have watermelon fights and just TALK to eachother - and at the end of the day are quite pleased with ourselves for not being caught up in the mad rush to get things done that is going on every second of twenty-four hours in the rest of the world.
It's a gift, really, this space we occupy here...however inconvenient it is at times (we waited two months for an internet connection order that was promised within an eight day time frame, and there are more and more days I find myself boiling water so I don't have to freeze in the shower, the taxi that we ordered to take us to our marriage licensing appointment arrived an hour late...) but it's a gift.

Most people, if they want to live this way (actually BEING together in marriage) have got to be trust-funded or sixty-five and retired. Now, its a strange trade-off, living in a place like India in order to find that opportunity...but well worth it in my estimation.
It's not as if we have a choice anyway - American immigration law says we've to apply for my love's visa from the same country in which we were married.
Iran is not an option as they don't have a US consulate; and as excited as I am to go there it's hard to imagine spending more than three months in a country where I've to cover my hair every time I leave the house just because I'm a girl.

So, India is home, for now, for better or for worse, with or without hot water...or electricity...

Either way, I've always got exactly what I need right here in front of me.

Thank God.