Why India belongs to UN high table permanently

September UNGA month at Taj Pierre in New York has become my address from years now. Each year, I attend the UNGA week as part of my longstanding association with WFUNA, and it has become a tradition. This year was no different, but there was a moment of personal reflection when I saw Tanmay Lal, Secretary (West), MEA at UN before Dr S. Jaishankar took the floor at the UNGA. It took me back to 2016, when I first met him at the Indian Mission at the UN. Time has passed, but the essence of those discussions remains fresh.

- SUNDEEP BHUTORIA

We have just passed the UNGA week - that eventful time in September every year when world leaders converge in New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. They look very stately behind that wooden lectern, standing out against a green granite background. And once they have spoken, these men and women come out on the sunny porch and hug each other as cameras and photographers go on a tizzy. Every handshake, every hug is analysed and commented upon - from Dhaka to DC. Placards are written, slogans are shouted... all is well with the world.

To tell you the truth, the glass-steel-and-concrete structure at the UN headquarters has never attracted me. From the outside, it seems a rather static, unimaginative parallelogram, as if wedged into the New York soil with a giant hammer. But it's the inside of this building that has always intrigued me. I would imagine stately diplomats, between mouthfuls of canape or ceviche, debating the fate of the world. Just the sheer grandeur of the Security Council and the General Assembly gave me goosebumps. Grim-looking men and women listening with their white headphones, enrapt in attention, as if missing one word could result in ICBMs criss-crossing the planet.