I am home! I suddenly realized. On Old Airport Road,  watching traffic careen through a chaotic intersection, I felt for the first time that everything was exactly as it should be. What a glorious mess! But  it had become my mess.  I was beginning to think like an Indian.

After three months in Bangalore I’m much more comfortable in a country known for overwhelming all five senses. The bright colors, spicy foods, heat and rain complemented by a distinct urban potpourri are unmistakable qualities of the Indian experience, but while they assault, ambush, and assail the body and mind, I know I will miss them when I’m gone.

In a country as large and diverse and diverse as India, there are few things that link Hindu, Muslims, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Jew alike in this psychedelic tapestry. Anyone who spends enough time here realizes that they too have an inner Indian and, in a country that wholly embraces reincarnation, this isn’t hard to believe.

The following are some tricks I have picked up to help me think like an Indian and learn to love this country along the way.

1. Be open for anything.

Whether it’s food, travel, dance or music, never be above a new experience, even when it sounds totally weird. I’ve eaten plenty of  questionable food, visited strange destinations and danced with abandon because it was the right thing to do at the time. It was fun too!By demonstrating an openness new things, I have benefitted from the tremendous goodwill of those around me and it has helped me to graft myself onto the body of this city.

2. Patience

The importance of this simple word cannot be overstated. We in the West are used to pin point accuracy and efficiency when it comes to work meetings, social arrangements and business transactions and it can be one of the most frustrating aspects of India for newcomers. Nothing here starts at the advertised time–unless it’s a televised cricket match and it’s something people dismiss with a wave of the hand. Public works drag on forever, contracts are signed at an agonizing pace and there’s always time for a cup of coffee.  India has over 5,000 years of history as a civilization, coupled with a tradition of reincarnation, therefor a delay of a month, a year or even a decade is an inconsequential blip on the continuum of history. Get over it.

3. Gestures

Sign language speaks louder than words. There are very graceful sweeps of the hand–either towards or away from the body–that mean everything from “get lost” to “straight ahead and left.”

Simple gestures carry a lot of meaning. For instance, never pass something to someone with your left hand. While the right hand is used for eating and writing, the left is traditionally reserved for more pedestrian functions. I won’t spell it out for you, but most people don’t use toilet paper here and there’s a reason why.

Finally, my favorite Indianism is the side-to-side head bob that simultaneously means, “yes,” “no,” “I don’t know,” “maybe,” “of course,” “what are you talking about,” “obviously,”  and yes and no at the same time. Some people’s necks demonstrate remarkable flexibility when doing the nod, but even a slight twist back and forth connotes a finality that few forms of body language can top.

The bob is the ultimate shibboleth to signify one’s comfort and familiarity with India and her myriad ways. In it’s grace, simplicity and overpowering ambiguity, the head nod says “I can’t be f@^!ed with.”

4. Be Value Conscious

Thinking like an Indian means finding the best price. It took a while for me to get this, but I understand much better now. I used to think of prices in dollar terms, but today I walked for 20 minutes in a drizzle to save 20 rupees on a rickshaw ride. Knowing the wild swings in prices and having to live on a very tight budget means looking for bargains and getting the best value for my money–which happens to be in rupees.  Just I don’t exactly know how to explain the Rs. 230 ($5) I spent on a giant ice cream cone today, but I no longer convert prices and think I’m somehow getting a bargain.

5. Juggad

The word “juggad”  means to improvise or make do.  Indians have a remarkable knack for fixing things with spare parts or their hands, but the concept has much wider applications. ‘Our Delhi Struggle‘ bloggers, Dave and Jenny, two Americans who relocated to Delhi, have a great piece on their blog about juggad. In India, it’s better to make solutions than make excuses, even if it takes some spare wire, a ball point pen and a soda can.

6. Cricket is Religion

In a country as large and diverse as India, with 23 offiicial languages and millions of gods, a shared love of cricket is one thing that unites the masses. Since arriving, I have caught cricket fever and was lucky enough to attend two matches during the Airtel Champions 20 tournament at Chinnaswamy stadium. I wrote a guest post for Prem Panicker’s blog, Smoke Signals, about become a cricket nut since leaving the U.S.

More on how Bangalore has grown on me will surely have to follow, but I’ve reached the point where I’m ready to stay put as long as it is the cricket god’s will.