Bad India Day

One evening I was a bit uptight about something or other, and Tara stated, "You're having a bad India day, aren't you?" I liked that term. I have held onto it, and when I am having a difficult moment, I think, "I am having a bad India day".

Today was a Bad India Day.

There are always little random glitches in the system here, things that are difficult to deal with when you were raised in the sterile, predictable, repeatable US. These glitches are easy to absorb when they come in small doses. But every once in a while..... everything spins out of control and the events are one after another after another after another after another.

Today this happened. As I was walking out of my building at the end of the day I thought, "If India was a chicken, I would chase it around the yard and snap its neck right now." I am not sure where the farm yard metaphor emanated from, but I think those fourteen years in North Carolina may have left me with a little Southern in the psyche.

Anyway, it went like this.

I came over to a building where many of the Bank's associates have been moved. Got into an elevator filled with dust and grime. The place is still about half finished, so no big deal. Then I get the guy I was going to see and we jump into a conference room and try to start a conference call that I was to run. First conference room had no phone. Ran to another room, no phone. Then we came to learn that no conference rooms in the buildings had phones. The building in which everyone had been moved had no ability to hold a meeting. So, I seek to correct this by running downstairs and getting on a phone on that floor. Those folks had been there a while, so I figured that would be the best place to find a conference room and a phone. Nope, that floor had no conference rooms.

Hmmmm.

So, I get in the elevator to go to the ground and run over to my building. I get in an elevator that went up instead of down. Not sure why. I had asked it to go down.

I eventually got onto the ground floor, run to my building, start the meeting 12 minutes late and then one of the attendees put the rest of us on hold. His phone's hold music is a blaring Chopin piano sonata. So, mid-sentence, I am interrupted by tinkling ivory. He never came back on the line, so I just hung up and the meeting was rescheduled for tomorrow.

Why would people be moved to a place that is not ready? Why would someone put a meeting on hold that they had chosen to dial into? Why would an elevator go up when asked to go down? Just little things that make you wonder "...how in the world does anything get done here?" And then you additionally wonder at the fact the place doesn't implode or break into mass hysteria or something of that ilk.

Then I drove home, and there are children defecating on the sidewalks, and a dog yelping on the edge of death because a rickshaw hit it, and garbage strewn pell mell, and the ever present traffic delay because of the buffaloes in the street and on and on.

Whew. It is exhausting even to relive it as I type.

Overall, India teaches you many important things - one is just to relax in the face of Chaos. She will show up from time to time, that is Her job. Chaos is a spectre that we all must acknowledge, especially those of us who live in India. She serves to help you keep things in perspective, and demands peace from you.

There is something you notice about India after living here for a period of time. Many people have a great capacity to simply sit there and stare off into space. It is a general sense of disinterest, by all appearances. But I am beginning to believe it is actually an act of rebellion against Chaos, the queen of India. The strategy is just to sit back and let the edge of life dull a bit. Take it easy, sit back.

Chill.

As my pastor (hi Rush!) quoted during a sermon a few years back, "The best advice is not always, 'Don't just sit there, do something!'. Sometimes the best advice is, 'Don't just do something, sit there!'."

That is good advice on days like the one I just had.

For the record, I am ok now.