Pardon the Interruption.

It’s important to have a sense of humor in India as over the course of one day, you mind find yourself running into any number of little interruptions that leave you questioning the reasoning behind the chaos.  Mainly because you never know when your rickshaw is going to break down in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain, you may put the majority of your clothes in the wash and they may come out purple, you might have a bite of curry drenched/ tear inducing food before realizing there’s no water in sight, it may take you 5 minutes to cross a one way street, sleeping patterns might become a little staggered as you fall asleep to drum circles and wake up to what sounds like a highway running through a tropical rain forest, at the foreign commissioner’s office you’ll have to deal with the disappointed faces that you’re an American who hasn't personally met Jack Bauer, you may find yourself sleeping on a hotel floor amongst 20 other grasshoppers and unnamed insects, maybe you’ll pay to use a restroom that doesn't even supply toilet paper, you might visit 10 different Internet cafes to find that the term ‘Internet’ is used very loosely here, the power may randomly go out at any given time, and possibly you’ll find yourself at a traditional Indian dance recital where they suddenly break out into the robot doing an interpretive dance of space travel.  Not that I would have personal experience of any of these occurrences or anything…  

The basic point is that there is an order and flow to Indian lifestyle and the main component of finding this order is to continually expect the unexpected.  Maybe your rickshaw broke down, but there are 5 more people ready to help you get where you’re going.  At the end of the day purple clothes make as good of clothes as those of any other color (and at least now all of your outfits are color coordinated).  It may take 5 minutes to cross the street but is your day really so rushed you can’t spare those 5 critical minutes?  Internet may only be seldom available in 10 minute intervals but there are books to be read and places to go that computer fixation could hold you back from otherwise.  And where else in the world are you going to see a group of Indian dancers break out into the robot as a tribute to the first Indian astronaut in space? 

*PS: I really tried to come up with a cute justification for sleeping next to full grown grasshoppers and how it was a learning experience if put in the right perspective but seriously, that one was just gross.