Friday, November 14, 2008

When Regimes Change: Obama-Mania

Phew!!! the US elections finally got over and the verdict was well in a way preidctable...Obama won. Though he was slated to do so, many of us around the world still remember the all time closely fought Al Gore-Bush Jr. election way back in 2000 and noone really believed in speculation till the news was official.

Anyways, the triumph was more for all the minorities across the world and truly so as Obama has become the first afro-american President of the US of A . Nations across the world watched closely as his arrival would have different implications for them. We watched too, us Indians, who rarely bother to wait and watch the end results of our own elections. Obama in a way is different from Bush. Bush played a very different game. In fact I wonder at times whether he took all the press reports and media speculation too seriously way back in 2000 to prove a point. Bush was always expected to do more for his own country than for the world before he became president. He was an internal guy who dint know much about world affairs (he didnt know who our Prime minister was, when asked in a talk show days before he became president). Yet, today he is responsible for causing havoc in middle eastern countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. I mean who would expect a guy not reacting immediately when told about 9/11 in a pre-school poem recital to have reacted that way. He screwed it up really but then somehow managed to come back to power again.

Was McCain right for India? Well, technically speaking he was as he would have continued to implement policies laid down by the Bush regime and blame dubya for whatever, he did bring India in a big way in the global arena. Trade was never better and our relationship with USA today is all because of the Bush regime. Bush considered India as the only other real democracy after the USA. Yet, what Obama has given to the people of USA, Bush could never give and that was HOPE. Hope to live life better, hope to live life in a peaceful world, hope to live with closed ones forever and with others in harmony. Bush's rhetoric was always about the world outside when it was his own people that needed solace and comfort.

Will Obama live upto his vision, only time will tell but India is a little worried with Obama looking to cut outsourcing and looking to get back strongly on the all-forgotten CTBT. Yet, history has shown that the democrats have been always more calmer and charismatic.

Obama has come in at tough times. The Financial crisis is looking to shake the foundations of the strong economies across the world. Both Afghanistan and Iraq wars have backfired as both civilians and American soldiers have been victims of civil unrest. And of course, most countries have a problem with the superpower, big-nosy-daddy image of the USA. Experts, expect Obama to take some serious decisions which may have negative implications for many countries including India. But they also say that he will be the safest bet in the future run

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Memoirs of the Past

This was not meant to be a poem really....because there are many things that have changed today and yet every time i go back home all grown up i miss these two things about my old house......

My house, how big it was once,
When i was a kid, I would hide and never be caught,
A new hiding place i would find everyday,
A new game everyday i would learn to play.

I would stare at the long coconut trees,
Watering them and imagine them grow an inch longer,
I would giggle as i felt dizzy watch the trees sway,
I would turn around in circles to fall down.

I would wait for the candyman at the gates everyday,
Keenly listening to his deliberately made up cacophony,
The sound of his cycle bell causing a tingle down my spine,
I would wait with my hands holding on the 'aath aana' tightly.

Today the house remains no more,
I live in a matchbox of an apartment,
I yearn to catch a breath of fresh air,
I give up to switch on the air conditioning.

The candyman comes still but is old and unable to shout,
He his become the boogeyman for all the kids around,
He looks up to my balcony recognising me,
And i see on his face a melancholy.

Every small thing felt mine before,
But now i feel otherwise,
In my own house i feel like a prisoner,
The journey of my life is not mine anymore.


V.V.Vikram