“Put on a coat Jordan, it’s going to rain”
Rolling off his tongue in a sure and steady Lebanese accent, the phrase was meant as a joke by a man who had been the fascination of our group during training session one. He had the ability to tell fascinating stories, teach lessons and leave just enough mystery to enthrall us all. This final sentence of his followed his pattern of being profound although it was chiefly meant as a joke and was largely accidentally prophetic.
“Put on a coat Jordan, it’s going to rain”
Those words were spoken in November and I remember thinking, ‘Thanks for the advice but we’ve completely missed monsoon season, no rain is heading our way.’
“Put on a coat Jordan, it’s going to rain”
I was completely wrong, and as usual, Roy was completely right. It’s rained a lot the last couple months. India’s monsoon has been in full effect at entirely the wrong time of the year.
“Put on a coat Jordan, it’s going to rain”
One thing you can’t take away from India is its ability to test you in every single way possible. Physically, mentally, spiritually. This country will dig at your core until you understand yourself well enough to weather the storm, or until you get lost in it. Generally you get lost more than enough times before you understand yourself.
You find signs in the wrong places, maps with incorrect streets, you get hungry and stop at restaurants that tend to have unsavory consequences.
And you realize an unconventional truth.
At a point you stop looking for the end or the eye of the storm. You start enjoying the wrong places, the incorrect streets, and accept the unsavory consequences of beautiful food.
You realize that you can’t, in fact, shouldn’t hide from the storm.
It’s guiding you places you didn’t want to go but needed to go to all the more.
Ye Bharat Hai. This is India. Put on your coat because it most definitely is going to rain.
