April 30th, 2007
A Rare Seth Godin Rant
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A few hours at the Indian consulate in New York induced a rare rant from Seth Godin -
Many of the chairs are broken, leaving sharp steel platforms on which to crouch. And there aren’t enough chairs, broken or not. The signs are confusing, the two clerks are protected by a sheet of glass a full inch thick (which is twice the thickness of a typical bank’s) and the little machine that dispenses deli-style tickets is broken.
When Seth Godin is in India, which he is presumably going to be, someone should take him to the US consulate to check if getting a US visa in India is a more pleasant experience than getting an Indian visa in the US. I have a suspicion that the visit will inspire another, even more spirited, rant from him. 
Interesting post about Seth’s reactions to the Indian Consulate in NYC. It is actually not all all that bad! I can see though why he might complain about the broken furniture etc.The consulate is in a nice, tony neighborhood of Manhattan and looks nice from the outside, but inside is a different story.
Yes, he will be quite taken aback by the long, tedious procedure of getting a visa to the USA. Let me recount just a bit of what it takes to get that visa. You typically get up at some unearthly hour to make a trek to the Consulate, stand in a long, meandering line and then hope that you make it to the counter before lunch time…oh, don’t get me started on this. But, yes inside the consulate is clean with gleaming, shiny, cold, steel furniture
kamla
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@Kamla: My own visit to the US consulate was made even more interesting by the fact that it involved an overnight bus journey from Bangalore to Chennai (I was a student at IIM-B then), prolonged fare negotiations with Chennai autorickshaw drivers and 40 degrees of humid heat.
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I have no doubt at all that the US consul is a disaster. The question is: is the US working hard to market the country as a tourist destination? If they are, then the visa process is just as bad a marketing effort for them as it is for India here.
I certainly wasn’t trying to rant about the Indian consul in particular. It had great people and wasn’t horrible. I was instead trying to make a point that everybody markets.
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@Mr Godin: First, I cannot tell you how kicked I am that you commented on my blog! Your ideas never fail to make me think and I’m a huge huge huge fan.
Second, there was never any doubt in my mind about the intent of your post (governments are marketers etc.) and I meant ‘rant’ in the nicest way possible.
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Gah, I’m going to be there this week. And I’ve been there twice; I can vouch for its dismal conditions. It’s definitely nerve wracking!
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