Thank You Mr. President Barack Obama (Edited Version)
Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010
by Drunken Mystic
http://drunkenmystic.wordpress.com
Preparations were heavy and fast before the American president Mr. Obama was scheduled to arrive at Mumbai on the 7th of November. The spirit was high in India and everybody was looking forward to this one single and historic trip which was made by the President of the United States . All 570 or more rooms of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai were booked and for the high security concerns, the residents of Mumbai especially around Marine Drive were forbidden from celebrating Diwali. Diwali is one of the biggest festivals celebrated all over India, and certainly nobody would want to miss it. That is one day in their lives they get to burst crackers, meet friends, exchange sweets and have a gala of time.
What intrigued me more was, the way the whole visit of the President was handled and also received in various corners of Mumbai and Delhi ? The Chief Minister and other state ministers of Mumbai were invited by the U.S. Consulate for a meeting with the President only on conditions like having to submit their Identity proof along with passport numbers. Wow…now this is really strange. Political rulers of a country or state asked to provide their passports prior the President’s visit was something uncalled for. The U.S. Consulate did apologize later!
The former Chief Minister of Maharashtra , Mr. Chavan seemed to be unfazed by all the identity verification stuff, although he may have expressed his disappointment in private, personally received Mr. Obama at the airport later. Staying at the Taj was no wonder, for all of us knew that the brutal 26/11 increased the attention and brought sympathy to the families who lost their loved ones and employees of this ancient piece of architecture which was once upon a time constructed by Mr. Jamshedji Nasserwanji Tata to snub the colonial rule. The speech at the memorial given by Mr. Obama was indeed well-prepared to convince us about a lot of things.
No sooner did he finish talking there came, an embarrassment for all of us, from the member of the Opposition party, the BJP, Mr. Rajiv Pratap Rudy. He immediately jumped the gun to accuse President Obama of not having mentioned Pakistan in his condolence speech. Everybody, from the media to the government and Mr. Rudy’s party members were also aghast at his remarks. Later on, all of us caught Mr. Rudy at the news studio only eating his words and looking for a place to hide under the table. We as Indians also didn’t expect or look forward to the President to give a biased speech as he was meant to be more emotional and supportive to those who died and fought bravely on that night of 26/11. Diplomacy is always better.
Having met Mr. Ratan Tata, who donated $50 million to the Harvard Business School and the genius mind behind the $2500 wonder – the Nano, they were eager to have a look at it and he obliged immediately. I would say, Nano is the car which is increasing traffic and unwanted pollution - a needless commodity.
Of course, the Indians were proud to have the President of the U.S.A visit our country and spend such a long time, the first time ever an American president has done that. It was a charming experience to see Mrs. Michelle so up close mixing and dancing freely with the children. She certainly seemed to carry energy of flamboyance, charisma and exuberance and yet remained balanced and dignified. While the American couple continued to enthral crowds, the question everybody asked was, is there any positive outcome for the two countries from this newfound friendship?
Mr. President answered the above question in a deep and profound manner in the Indian Parliament. A leader he certainly is, with great oratory skills, a politician with a vision who is looking far ahead of us into the future and not many of us may understand his ideas and agendas. The appreciation for cultures and languages, religions and races which he has pushed us for is a big lesson for all of us to learn. As he mentioned a few quotes from the renowned Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and a few words spoken by Swami Vivekananda at the Chicago convention in 1893 inspired Indians and made us feel proud of our nation. Sometimes, I question myself, "What is stage managed in life?"
When Mr. President and the First Lady visited the Moghul Emperor, Humayun’s tomb in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, they met up with the under privileged children and it was a wonderful gesture from their side to mingle and be one like those children at heart. My heart went out for those children who were asked to wear school uniforms on a Sunday and that too during the days of Diwali. It is really unfortunate that children have to be conditioned all the time and made to feel that they are under the disciplinary action of a teacher even when they are present at a historical monument which is outside the school.
The children couldn’t be themselves and they were stiff and not smiling. Was it because of the uniform after all? Couldn’t they have been asked to come in their natural clothes and made to feel much easier? How pathetic it could be to ask children to put on some school uniforms, black shoes and white socks, combing the hair and tying it with a uniform coloured ribbon? Even if they had a nice day out to the tomb to meet the President, unfortunately they couldn’t smile or even enjoy. The feeling of complete joy and freedom was taken away by the school uniform. They were just too innocent to realize it.
Listening to a third person’s perspective about your country, coming from a far away land, certainly brings an impression of what we as citizens are giving to the entire world. It was very refreshing and inspiring when he spoke about Mahatma Gandhi’s message to the world, and also Swami Vivekananda. The question still remains about the common man! What is he going to derive out of it? Maybe, it’s a great step to move forward with as the Indian economy just crossed 21,000 points one day before Diwali. Are these points reaching the innermost villages of India providing children quality education, the villagers, clean drinking water and above all the farmers, continuous electricity to pump water to their fields? The health facilities still haven’t improved and even now there are many rural areas where people have to walk for miles at a stretch to get access to a health centre. Women living in the mountains have to climb downhill to fetch water as they have no facility to pump it up all the way to their homes.
The State Government of Uttarakhand provided electricity to remote villages like Dwarahat, 80 Km from Ranikhet only in the year 2003. Recently, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan sponsored solar power for a village in Rajasthan on Diwali.
Certainly, it was great to see the president address the nation and remind the world’s largest democracy certain responsibilities of being a global power which the politicians have ignored for a long time. The rising costs in food prices have brought the middle class as well as the lower middle class no reprieve at all. All voices have gone unheard. As much as we have to be proud of we all have many issues to deal with and by mentioning how great we are as a nation, certainly he has reminded us being great doesn’t mean you forget your responsibilities.
To conclude, I would say that the speech delivered by the President, Mr. Barack Obama at the Indian Parliament was one of the well articulated speeches I have ever heard in a long time. Not only myself, but the whole nation appreciated it even though there was scepticism involved over the indirect hints by the president towards India to sign the NPT.
We can all go gaga over this visit and deals signed by the two countries and resolving to fight terrorism together. The two nations are looking forward to cooperate in manufacture of defence arms. At the end of the day, there is only one question everybody seems to be asking after this visit. What’s in it for the common man?
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)I didn't see Barack Obama's speech, but I've listened to others and have always been very moved by him. I believe he is a visionary, who cares about the common man and who has a deep sense of accountability. Still, how much of anything ever filters down? Very little, I'd say. Hopefully in India it will be different.Unfortunately, it will never be different in India. We had one visionary like him 18 years back and he was Rajiv Gandhi. Everybody mocked his ideas then and today they are repenting not having followed them. Even Jawaharlal Nehru disagreed with Gandhi's ideas and today India has benefited through the karmas of non-violence which Gandhi started as a movement. People will never learn from mistakes. Thank you for your comments!
What is sad is that Obama is a great talker but, dose not deliver on what he says. We must not forget that every thing that is said by any goverment offical is carefully planed out. I think it was wrong for Obama to go to another country and tell them they can not take part in their own culture. Do you think Americans would let someone from another country tell them that they can not have fourth of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or anyother holiday?Well, it wasn't he who told us we cannot celebrate the festival. It was his "security forces" who cordoned off that area and the Prime Minister didn't take notice of it. It is a big shame, as we are used to the Colonial treatment, certainly you can expect something like this to happen. It's a big shame though and the media just didn't criticize either and they sang the "Obama visit tune". People only see what they want to see. I am sure Obama wouldn't have appreciated this either. You really think the American President takes notice of all this. I am sure it wasn't his decision to restrict people from celebrating Diwali because he was going to stay at the Taj.
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