The Plucky Programmer

Upon arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport, when you hear on more than one occasion people singing out loud Empire State of Mind unabashedly, you can pretty much guess that this city is not like the others. And yes it isn’t.

My purpose in New York was the UNA-USA MUN (a model united nations conference for those unfortunate enough never to have participated in one) We arrived a day before the opening ceremonies at the Grand Hyatt located on Lexington avenue and right next to the Grand Central. The hotel’s location had a gazillion perks, not only the fact that the conference itself was to be held there (The opening and closing ceremonies were in the UN building and General Assembly hall, however). Still, the fact that I loved the most was the street– The 42nd!

I suggest taking a brief pause at this moment to hail the fortytwo but you can go on if you’re an insensitive intolerant bigot.

Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the richest streets there, and our room offered us exhilarating views of the manhattan skyline with both the Chrysler building and the empire state building visible.

We nipped off to the Apple store on 5th avenue on the first day itself, apple fanboys as we were.

The opening ceremonies on the next day took place in the UN General Assembly hall, and when you get to sit in the same seats where actual world leaders have been sitting together  since 1942 and when you listen to the secretary general Ban-Ki moon (Pronounced Baaaan, as Im repeatedly corrected) speak, a lot of people would feel weak in the knees and be motivated to work for the world. I, on the other hand deduced it the most appropriate moment to click a picture to show off to my great grandchildren later.

I was representing Kazakhstan, alongwith my friend Ishita Mishra, in UNICEF. The agenda was HIV and Young People, and the committee turned out to be way more intensive than anticipated. We had spent 2 months going into the depths of the problem, analyzing the situation and researching about the topic. However, there, we realized the way the committee progresses is very different than an MUN in India. The focus is laid on collaborating together and actually working as a committee to produce solutions, while in an MUN in India, as I’m told by my friends who have had experience in such conferences, people are encouraged to sling mud and make each other bite dust while they dominate the committee.

Anyhow, the conference was a lot of fun. We finished with 4 successful resolutions and 75 happy faces. Kazakhstan won an Honorable Mention, and there were 2 Honorable Mention awards given out in the committee alongwith one Best Delegate. The closing ceremonies got wrapped up in the GA hall and with it the MUN ended.

There was also a lot of after-the-committee-wraps-up-for-the-day partying (One pyjama party went on till 4 am), going everywhere possible for shopping, daily visits to Times Square and a brief 1 hour intermission by the President, Barrack Obama (We were halted for an hour as Obama’s motorcade was enroute to JFK airport)

And after the conference ended there was 4 days time for more of the above, including a day long Manhattan tour.

There was much, much more that happened and not suitable for a public post, but you get the general idea :P. And so with this, I’m back to blogging, my daily routine,barking at the stray dogs and OH MY GOD ITS THE SUMMER VACATIONS! I’ll keep you posted ;)