It's ludicrous just how fast a building can slip into decline, once you hand it to the government.

Drawers full of animal pellets I am afraid to confirm, bathrooms so unspeakably hideous, you avert your eyes each time you pass, stairs that become stained with cigarette butts and shoeprints, walls that grow lines overnight, always the lounging pitter-patter of a gossiping Naib Qasib, while the babus stride about, always in a rush. The rankers who eye the young Assistant Directors with hate and envy, and the water cooler gossip that dirties the very air. Unassuming, forgettable, government offices share in the lack of their charm.