When Secretaries flew economy class

(Excerpted from In the Pursuit of Governance, autobiography of MDD Pieris)

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(Continued from last week)

Paris

We flew to Paris on the 20th, of August. The Ambassador happened to be in Sri Lanka, and we were met by helpful officials. On our drive from Charles De Gaulle Airport to the city centre, one of the senior Embassy officials accompany ing me, rather apologetically said that he had booked us at a small hotel, since Paris hotels were very expensive and our allowances inadequate for better accommodation. I said it was alright, although as mentioned in an earlier chapter, experienced senior officials had advised me very early in my career, that if you were travelling in a representative capacity, it was most important to stay at an appropriate and decent address. Here, I was by now a Senior Secretary, leading a senior delegation. I was prepared nevertheless to abide by the arrangements made. But the hotel was a shocker. The reception area was the size of a very small room. When we entered, a casually dressed young man was viewing a football match on T.V. There were no others. He was a one man front desk. He checked us in, with much assistance from our Embassy staff after which some of us were pointed to a rickety old wooden lift.

By now, we were looking at each other in dismay, but didn't say much. We were tired and also far too surprised. We entered the lift which went up creaking and groaning. I got out at my floor carrying my baggage to total darkness. It was quite disorienting. When the eyes got used to the darkness, I saw what looked like a light switch and pressed it. The corridor lit up. But before I could locate my room, the lights went off. Apparently, the corridor lights were timed to last only a minute! Eventually, I found my room and got in. Here was another set of problems.