My Kingdom for a Visa

Today was to be the day we flew to India, but here we sit in Chicago. With still no movement on our visas from the Indian Government, we are now planning to travel in two weeks, hoping to get visas by that time. Here is the background:

We have had our Dip Passports and visa applications at the Indian Embassy since March, but for reasons that only the Indians know, we are still without any response. According to the good folks at the US Embassy in Delhi, we are in good company as many in DoD and DoS currently have this problem. After conferring with our Embassy in Delhi, we decided to push back two weeks to give them more time to work the issue. They also recommended I seek a letter from JNU, in case I need to use it to get a student visa (plan "B" if the Dip visas don't happen). I then spent the wee hours of Wednesday night/Thursday morning on the phone to Jawaharlal Nehru University, trying to learn the status of my admission.

The good news is that, after several calls (one of which consisted of them answering and spouting out: "Hello, lunchtime, no response!" ) At about 4 AM Chicago time I finally got the gentleman who knew my status. He said "Congratulation! You are accepted!" Those were the words I'd waited for since last November, but I had to act quick to get him to agree to fax a copy of the acceptance letter to the Embassy. He of course said he would, but it is hard to tell if he understood and agreed or merely told me what I wanted to hear (a very common practice). After relaying the good news to the embassy, they went the extra mile and found someone to go pick up the letter at JNU (I gotta take the embassy guys out for dinner after we get there!). I hope to see the letter soon.

In any case, we are learning to be patient with the Indian pace of life. We are grateful to be with family and spend a little extra time together. I am trying to keep up some Hindi practice (लेकिन बहोत मुश्किल है! हर दिन में कुछ नये शब्द सीखता हू ) ... admittedly it has been hard to focus on Hindi. I have been fortunate to bump into PIOs (People of Indian origin) both here and in Salt Lake, and It has been a lot of fun to speak to them in their mother toungue. I even chatted with a Bihari woman working at Subway in Laramie, Wyoming!

Meanwhile we keep smiling! मै जन्नता हू कि जल्दी जल्दी हम सुब भारत मे पहुंचेंगे!