Indian Adventures Part III: The Road Block

I have found that you will only get frustrated if you try to get somewhere in a hurry - "dheere dheere" is the way of life here. I gave myself an hour to get from my hotel to my meeting at UNICEF, which according to google map should take 13 minutes. The moment I got into my taxi there was traffic somehow. No joke it took us 30 minutes to get out of my street. Some guy had parked his car on the left side of the road. Normally this wouldn't be a cause of a major hold up but because the entire city is under construction for the Commonwealth Games the street is really narrow. Eventually some pedestrian got sick of all the honking and decided to take charge and direct the two-way traffic that clearly couldn't fit in the now-narrow road. I was getting more and more enraged at whomever was going to make me late. As the rickshaws and motorcylces passed us, my car started moving slowly. It was then that I realized that it was the police officer's car that was causing the hold up! He was hanging out schmoozing with the workers as they renovated the building next to my hotel and was totally oblivious to the parking lot he had created. Uch India!

I managed to get to UNICEF just in time for my 3pm meeting with the Education Advisor. He worked for the government of India before so knew the Chalta Firta program from both a government perspective and a donor's perspective. It was a very fruitful and helpful meeting. But what I couldn't get over was the actual building!

The office is located in one of the poshest parts of town, known as Lodi Estates. The grounds are so beautiful and well manicured. This is my walk-by attempt to capture it. Best part- the 200 employees have a massive cafetaria in there and can just call and order drinks whenever they feel like it. A waiter served me and the advisor delicious chai tea.

In DESTIN we often talked about how UN offices are riddled with extra spending. It is no surprise that those jobs are the most coveted - they pay well, give diplomatic immunity, and provide amazing benefits. I am not saying that UN officials don't work hard but it is probably easier to get away with lavish and at times superfluous expenses. I mean- who is going to hold them to account- the tax payers from the 192 member countries?