The Mondy Party

I was asked to open a bank account. So I went down the 11 floors, 1 by stairs (don’t ask me why they don’t have a lift which goes right up to 11) and took the express lift down. The UBS people gave me an account in less than 5 minutes. It was only while walking back to my office (yes I have a nice big office and I will take pains to describe it later) that I realized that I had a Swiss bank account. The epitome of the old Hindi movie bad rich guy! Now all I need to do is ask in a Ajit accent ‘Raabert Swiss bank account main kitne paisa hai…

The ILO building is not imposing. It is not beautiful. It is definitely not the Taj Mahal. In fact whoever designed it did so keeping in mind two things
a) Everybody has an ego
b) And though this is the ILO (labour), everybody here after all is management
Now imagine a big large jumbo with two aisles and seats not only on the two sides but also the middle. So think of the aisles as corridors and the seats towards the windows as rooms - sorry lots and lots of rooms (about 70-80 of them). What about the middle – think of steel grey cabinets, tonnes of them with a couple of photocopiers and printers thrown in to break the drab scenery. Now imagine this for 11 floors – grey outside and green inside.

A clear clarification must be made however – most people I have met and interacted with here are
a) Bright
b) Committed and
c) Hardworking
I also think that’s what is important. Period.

Switzerland is expensive. I remember how when I first came to the States I was comparing stuff to India and cribbing about prices. A small combo meal at McDonalds here costs 11 francs (compared to $5 in the US) which is really double that in College Park. One understands better the concept of relative poverty only when it hits you smack in the middle of the face.

Et maintenant je dois attendre le ` carte de legalization '- un permis suisse de travail et de séjour. seulement alors je tiens une chance d'obtenir un visa pour aller Nice ou Vienne ou Munchen…
(And now I must wait for the ‘carte de legalization’ – a Swiss work and residence permit. Only then do I stand a chance of getting a visa to go Nice or Vienna or Munich)