Great Expectations

Today, in one of the many meetings at office, I was queried about a decision, that I had pursued and implemented in the month of September, just before the “Close-to-Great Depression” spread its tentacles over the economically optimistic mood of the globe. I was questioned as to; how can I reverse the after effects of that decision and then there I very instinctively replied back saying that the only option left with me is to personally meet Mr. Obama to plead him and revitalize this economy. While, everyone around had a hearty laugh, I was satisfied that I could fend off a bouncer quiet effectively.
Now, when I ponder over that incident, I think – Obama; what is he got to do with a decision that I have taken in my office and that too, much before he had become a US president. That’s who, most of us novices and even the financial gurus are looking upto with hope. Yes, Hope is the word that he created a buzz around (along with Change of course), ensuring that he generated enough of it among the voter masses en-route to his presidential feather. He must definitely be tributed to the fact that America, after his election, can claim more credibly than any other western country to have at last become politically colour-blind. With such a great victory come unreasonably great expectations. Just before he took the oath on Jan 20 2009, there were opinion polls flashing and sweeping the world with optimism that “only Obama can save us”. I always thought nothing can be compared to the expectations that are being put by the billions of fans on the not-young-anymore shoulders of the great Sachin Tendulkar. But Obama has surpassed these expectations both in terms of the number and the variety of expectations. Phew!! almost half of the 6.77 billion population dwelling on Mother Earth directly or indirectly are affected by Obama and they expect him to bring a magical wand and rescue them from this terrible period. While Sachin has to bear the burden of expectations in terms of what he does on the cricket field on match days, this fella needs to weather the storm from all sides and almost on a 24 X 7 basis. Plus the challenges he face are varied. At home, he must try to unite his country, tackling its economic ills and to raise America’s international standing which sunk to its awful lows under his predecessor George Bush’s era. He also needs to address the never ever so popular demand of stopping outsourcing to other countries so as to increase jobs. In contrast, with a unipolar economic superpower status, other countries expect US to play a big brother role in safeguarding the world from threats of economic recession, terrorism and global warming. Like most politicians, one might believe that Mr Obama will surely fail more than he succeeds. But he is a man of great dignity, superior talents and high ideals. In choosing him, America has shown once again its unrivalled capacity to renew itself, and to surprise. Let’s see if he can prove all us wrong.

Tryst with the Indian OBAMA!!

With the IPL2 season getting hotter with as many as 6 teams slugging it out for the semifinal berths and it seems very likely that the teams would be so close to each other that the top 4 would be decided on the basis of NRR. However tight the IPL series ends up in, the real excitement was with the GREAT IPL – Indian Polling League. And this GREAT IPL does not require no cheer leaders, strategic time outs or any free hits to build up the excitement among the masses. Almost all exit polls, opinion polls (editor’s verdicts and projections as they were termed after the election commissioner put a ban on the exit and opinion polls during the 5 phases of elections) predicted a closer finish to both the top 2 alliances and the third and the fourth front would call the shots in the government formation. Unfortunately there is no NRR in elections, no super over and not even a bowl out to decide on the winner in a close election finish. Each party was busy building up strategies to somehow cobble a government and if it failed to do so, get into an election mode once again after 2 years or so, after the unstable government fails to sail over the troubled waters. This instability would have been a serious blow to India’s efforts to maintain its stake as an emerging economic superpower. Almost all of the media correspondents were in search for an Indian OBAMA among various political parties to save the Indian economy (not sure that Barrack Obama has been able to galvanize the US economy as he was able to galvanize the US voters with HOPE) if not a “HE IS THE ONE” - NEO from the Matrix. None of them were able to find him not even a distant body-double (Don’t have to explain you that for sure). DOOM (read unstable government) for INDIA was pretty much certain.
However the Indian OBAMA emerged from nowhere and he is no one other than the GREAT INDIAN VOTER (GIV). Courtesy the GIV, the Indian democracy decided to give yet another chance to the WEAK yet humble PM – ManMohan Singh. I am not sure that ManMohanomics would get us out of the dark woods but I am happy that at least, there is a silver lining now because there is a stable government at the center. No election pundits and psephologists (a word that even does not find a mention in the Microsoft WORD software, statistical analysis of elections and is supposed to be derived from Greek psephos ψῆφος, 'pebble', which the Greeks used as ballots) was able to predict what is in the minds of the GIV.
I am sure that not even one Congress leader could have privately betted on the number of seats they and their allies they actually got, before the elections. However at the hindsight now, knowing their performance of 2009 after 2004, they would be willingly ready to market the new Sarah Lacy’s book titled “Once you are LUCKY, Twice you are GOOD”
Coming back to the GIV, (s)he, doesn’t require any invitation or pursuit by NGOs and corporate like JAAGO RE to exercise her vote. (S)he also doesn’t require any assistance in registering her name in the electoral list nor any election aspirant to help her find out her polling booth. (S)he doesn’t require a holiday for casting her vote, (s)he would cast it anyway regardless. (S)he doesn’t live in any of the MAHAcities, leave aside the Metros and this has been confirmed by the voting %ages all across the 4 Tier I and II cities as against the rest of the country. (S)he is one who would act when it is needed and also make sure that (s)he does not crib and cry over her non-action for the next 5 years. (S)he comes from various castes, creeds and religions and would follow her own gut feeling to choose any ideology which she believes is right for her and her country in her own analysis. (S)he chooses her own path and more often than not (s)he makes the right decision.
I met VijayaLakshmi, during one of my rare visits to a temple in Tirupati (that makes it even rarer). We were awaiting our turn to visit the holy almighty in one of the waiting halls. This wait was for about 6 hours from 4 pm to 10 pm and this gave a rare opportunity to interact with VijayaLakshmi and also a chance to recall some episodes of Ramanand Sagar’s RAMAYAN (The waiting halls have TVs where in Ramayan was aired). There was nothing common between me and VijayaLakshmi and the only common language that we knew was sign language and she could interpret some broken Hindi words and this aspect made our communication very interesting and challenging. Very seldom were we able to get what she was telling us in her first three attempts and I took even more to convey what I intended. VijayaLakshmi hailed from a village near Rajmundhry and was certainly not my age. She had a son who was atleast 5 years elder to me and had married only 2 days ago. They were visiting Tirupati to seek blessings for the newly married couple. The groom actually ran a cycle puncture shop in their village and his mother went to work in somebody else farm to earn about 30 Rs per day. The groom was busy with his wife but the mother-in-law was in full Josh and together we discussed a lot of issues including Andhra food, their culture, the difference between their marriage rituals and ours etc. However when short of topics to discuss, I thought of opening up Andhra politics to her. I asked her what she thought of YSR - YS RajShekhar Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Little did I know that I was on the right path, but entered a wrong way. I say that because she was very much into active politics but was a die hard fan of Chandra Babu Naidu. She was a active member and was occupying a position in the TDP’s village level organization. She had participated in cycle rallies for the campaign of Chandrababu Naidu in the last election. I asked her why she preferred Naidu over Reddy when Reddy offers her so many goodies like subsidized supply of rice and other grains, free electricity etc. She did try her best to explain some of the reasons for preferring Naidu, but I was not able to assimilate very less of what she intended to convey. The only take away that hit me from this discussion, she was so fond of Naidu that she had not availed the facility of the monthly rice quota of 10 kg at a rate of 3 Rs per kg even once, just because it was offered by Naidu’s rival. Such is the level of dedication and loyalty to a political leader. Surprisingly the same leader is always projected by the Indian media as one of those who was pro-urban and anti-rural in his stint as CM. Such a contrast picture from what is the ground reality. The Prannoy Roys, the Barkhas and the Rajdeeps however hard they try would not be able to project the entire Indian perspective. VijayaLakshmi is just one of the billions who happened to meet me in Luck by Chance visit. At the end of my encounter, I just had to salute her and the Great Indian Voter who is just taken democracy to a next level for sure. This encounter is still freshly etched in my memory even though it is almost 30 months since I met VijayaLakshmi.