During the monsoon in Dharamsala, everything seems to come to a halt.
Sometimes the electricity fails. Other times, rain tests the simple, tin-roofed houses. The roads become potholed every year, and get repaired every year, but never for good.
While negotiations between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government continue, on and off, Tibetans exiled in Dharamsala, whether they are politically inclined or not, have to make the best of an uncertain situation that has been dragging on much longer than expected.
In late September, with the three-month summer monsoon about to end, members of the Tibetan diaspora in the hill town at the foot of the Himalayas in northern India shared their thoughts on the current reality and future possibilities.
It was a peculiar time. That week, two young Tibetan monks had set themselves on fire in China, the third and fourth to do so this year, casting a pall over the exile community. (No one foresaw that there would be six more such cases, one a nun, in the following few weeks.)
There was a sense of frustration and an air of uncertainty, but also a palpable sense of hope for a peaceful outcome to talks with Beijing at a time of generational change, both in the exile communities and in China.
The Dalai Lama passed his political authority in August to a newly elected prime minister who is neither monk nor aristocrat, but a Harvard law scholar with a modern outlook, who pledges to uphold the Dalai Lama's 'middle way' policy, which seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule. While it is uncertain whether the Dalai Lama's political retirement will help restart the talks with Beijing, many in exile think the move from theocracy to democracy will be good for Tibetan society in the long term.