India's own Obama?

So finally he has done it. America sees its first African-American President. It was a tough choice for a conservative belt. If you want democrats, you either take the first woman President or the first African-American one. I am glad they showed some intellect and voted Obama.

My take on this whole election and the post-election euphoria is that people saw a true leader. At least one that seemed remotely honest and didn't come with that "political manipulation" image. Someone that truly mobilized people and motivated them to get up and take charge if they wanted to change their lives. Youth. I really believe that for the United States to have a Black President, the young and not-so-conservative Americans had to do it, not those conservative very mid-west type people.

When you see the parties after the election results and the enthusiasm of people and the real hope they exude that this will change the course of a failing country, it almost feels like a super-charged game that has been won by the under-dogs.

When did we see such an election in India last? I don't know. With every election, its the same mundane stuff that happens. You vote, you don't vote, people get elected, people don't get elected, life goes on as usual. The only people that celebrate are political party workers and it feels like nobody's business.

Really now, not taking the time to vote or being too lazy to vote is one thing. Not having anyone to vote for is another. If we had a charismatic leader who got us charged about the future of the country being better, who showed an honesty of purpose, who showed that he/she is really interested in doing something good for the country, why wouldn't we vote? And why wouldn't we celebrate his/her victory? But alas, for us, often times the only choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils.

So what I think is that we need a political leader who can generate the same euphoria that, lets say, Sachin Tendulkar used to generate some years ago when he came onto field. I am sure just as people would take any amount of pain to go watch him live, so would they go and vote. And then we will celebrate just like we celebrate a victory over Aussies ;)

When will we have our own Obama?

What?!

What is with Indian students being murdered in the US? So many instances these days :(

And the latest is this (video). A friend had left me a message on GTalk last night with this link. Now Prof. Jinaga was Head of Department for ECE (Electronics and Communication Engineering, which is the department I graduated out of) when Subhash was beginning engineering in JNTU and when I joined JNTU, he was Vice-Principal. A much-respected man. So many of his students have gone abroad and done well under his eye in JNTU. I know for sure that at least 90% of his class students migrated to the US, every year, for an MS and a job later on. And when his daughter did the same, this is what happened? It must be really sad for him and his family :( Normally when you hear these things you feel sad and sympathetic for the family. But when you hear that it happened to someone you know, its just that much more personally hurting :( I pray that the Prof and his family have enough strength to tide over this absolute tragedy [-o<

Back and following

Back from Tirupathi. EMI paying lord, still burdened under his loan, I say! TTD guys swindle so much money making him gold plated gopurams and gold laden stuff that none of that dearie monies is going back to Kuber. And so the loan becomes more and more sub-prime and the EMIs just keep growing in spite of growing donations (donations directly proportional to growing sins and growing populus)

We climbed the hill by foot for the first time and managed to scrape through decently :) Darshan was the best we've ever had. A full minute maybe, thanks to V's bro-in-law and his high recommendation ;) But really, nothing works in Tirumala these days without recommendation. I wonder how people without recommendation manage :( Even as late as 2004, me and my mom managed to go without any recos and even found accommodation impromptu which has become unheard of these days.

Anyways, back and busy now. Tiles, wall tiles, demolition, cement, paint, wood, doors, windows etc, discussions follow in not necessarily the same order. Managing ok so far since work load is not imposing, yet. Thank God! Else, the stress was going to kill me.

Following the US election. Yeah, US election means the media assumes that the whole world is interested, so no point cribbing how the TV is full of it. I am hoping the American populace is not dumb enough this time around to put McCain in the hot seat. When Bush won in 2004, I was literally shocked at the stupidity of those American citizens. But then maybe it wasn't such a free and fair election after all. And also I mainly blame Kerry for Bush's win. He just wasn't a strong enough or charismatic enough opponent. Even I would find it tough to decide between Bush and Kerry, and THAT is saying something;) Anyways, my entire 7 years in the US was spent singularly under Bush's rule. (2001 to 2008) So much so that Subhash calls him my favourite Prezzy. Yeah, of course, why not. No one hates him more than I do. Joker, saala.

And the next time I go to the US, I am hoping to go under Democratic rule. Enough of hopping in and out of Bush's America. Now I want to hop in and out of Obama's America :D ;)