Don’t come to India if you need a pat on the head and a cookie.

I learned this one the hard way. 

You need the following to work in India:

• Frugality – Where a litre of milk costs less than $ 0.50, you gotta get it done cheap.
• Fearlessness – The ability to  face gundas on the street and in your head.
• Blinders – Remember Arjun and the fish’s eye? You will hear no even after you succeed at doing something. Stay focused.
• Ingenuity – Like MacGuyver, you will be required to make enterprises function with just two toothpicks and some dental floss.
• Resilience – It will go wrong approximately 15 times for every once that it goes right.
• A little crazy – Take all the crazy in you and put it together in a safe place because you will need to unleash it.  
• Confidence – This can make up for a lot of things, including incompetence.
• Optimism – So much shit is messed up in this country So many things work differently than in your home country that you HAVE TO trust it will work out, and it does work out.

This is not a comprehensive list. But remember to pack these along with your toothbrush and comb.  Though you can’t expect a pat on the head, you can expect to be fed to excess by coworkers and random aunties. Which may be just as good.