Well not quite Indian PM style but I was in Washington DC the past week to catch the tourist attractions I had missed the last time I had been there. This time I went to the International Spy Museum which houses exhibits used by spies from all over the world.
A unique feature of the museum is its controlled entry, where visitors are given 5 minutes to memorize details of one of 16 spy profiles they are to assume (fictitious name, age, place of birth, destination, and so forth) as their "cover" before they are allowed to proceed into the exhibit area. Each "cover" is subtly assigned a mission on the plaque bearing their details, but completion is not required. Later while touring the museum visitors may test themselves at an interactive display on how well they remember the details of their selected spy identity. They may also be stopped occasionally by museum guides acting as "police" and "questioned" about their assumed identity. (Source : Wikipedia)
I was highly impressed by the exhibits and lots of other interactive tools. One of them also involved crawling inside air-conditioning ducts to eavesdrop on conversations happening below. All the gadgets we have seen in James Bond movies actually exist in reality and the most deadly one I thought was the "lipstick pistol".
For me as a person who has grown up reading espionage thrillers by Ian Fleming and Alistair Maclean, the experience was exhilarating. The CIA which has contributed to the museum's design has been criticized for romanticizing the profession with their interactive rools but then without them it would have been half the fun.
Don't miss this if ever you are visiting the capital of the United States.
A unique feature of the museum is its controlled entry, where visitors are given 5 minutes to memorize details of one of 16 spy profiles they are to assume (fictitious name, age, place of birth, destination, and so forth) as their "cover" before they are allowed to proceed into the exhibit area. Each "cover" is subtly assigned a mission on the plaque bearing their details, but completion is not required. Later while touring the museum visitors may test themselves at an interactive display on how well they remember the details of their selected spy identity. They may also be stopped occasionally by museum guides acting as "police" and "questioned" about their assumed identity. (Source : Wikipedia)
I was highly impressed by the exhibits and lots of other interactive tools. One of them also involved crawling inside air-conditioning ducts to eavesdrop on conversations happening below. All the gadgets we have seen in James Bond movies actually exist in reality and the most deadly one I thought was the "lipstick pistol".
There was also an entire section dedicated to Cold War espionage with a particular incident narrating, when the Allied forces tried building a tunnel under the Berlin Wall but not knowing that the Russians were well aware of this operation two years in advance due to the presence of a British double agent in the Allied ranks.
For me as a person who has grown up reading espionage thrillers by Ian Fleming and Alistair Maclean, the experience was exhilarating. The CIA which has contributed to the museum's design has been criticized for romanticizing the profession with their interactive rools but then without them it would have been half the fun.
Don't miss this if ever you are visiting the capital of the United States.
