Things that baffle us

Multiple times a week we say to ourselves, "WHERE ARE WE LIVING????"

It's a statement of disbelief. Disbelief at how deeply dysfunctional things seem to us, yet how they continue to function. Traffic. Bribes. Corruption. Bureaucracy. The way people treat one another. The caste system.

This week's highlights:

1. A local fireworks shop is going out of business so it decided to shoot off its remaining inventory... all night long.

2. We just went through the laborious procedures involved in visa renewal, only to find out that our kids' visas have been extended for 1 year (process done in Bangalore), but ours were only granted a 3-month extension (process done in Chennai). This is just a blatant, manipulative way to get us to come and pay more money. The truly frustrating thing: each renewal takes at least 12 (TWELVE) hours of Shae's time away from the office.

And his colleague who renewed the same week? He was granted a 6-month extension. Arbitrary?

Sorry for griping. Just had to share some of the baffling things in our world.