Lambi Judai - The Long Wait (read as a Hindi movie tag line)

Indians are legendary for a number of things - films, food, spirituality (look at the number of yoga/meditation classes mushrooming), etc. Apart from this, we are also renowned for going to another country (legally or otherwise) and doing well for ourselves. Such is also the case of our (Ashutosh’s & my) lives at present.

Ashutosh left almost a month ago to go to the UK. We have a well formulated, money making, three year plan, which includes clearing our mammoth home loan. At the conclusion of these three years we plan to return to our Mumbai. After all you can take a person (referring to Ashu) out of Mumbai, but can’t take Mumbai of out of the person. In all fairness, once you have buried your teeth into a vada pav, the taste lives on forever.

Anyway, back to the point, Ashu left the watan almost a month ago, and it’s been an uphill battle for both of us since, considering that we have been married for round about four months now. My struggle with getting a job continues overseas, as his effort to obtain a work permit persists. In this period, the one thing I have come to realise is that I have terrible luck. It brings to mind a friend of ours who always states that if something has to happen it will happen. I used to consider this phrase along with others like shes not fat, it’s just her bone weight, as being an Indian way of dealing with life’s miseries. But maybe Destiny does have something in store for everyone.

To lighten Destiny’s workload, my mother came out with an exceptional idea (being the Chintamani that she is – internal Rao family joke). Keeping in mind the lousy luck that we have as a family, she suggested living in luxury for the forthcoming days, to ensure that my providence is played out in fast forward. As suggested, I planned to engage my fathers’ driver to drive me around to work and back. And it did not take more than a couple of hours. I arrived at work, checked my mail, and behold, my papers needed to join my husband were in front of me at last.

Moral of the story – if you think your luck is as terrible as mine, and by and large your prayers go unanswered, listen to your mom.