Obama did not slip up even once and say, "Yes, we McCain." The refrain of his victory speech was "Yes, we can." It caught on so well because it was
simple enough for the reddest of necks in states red, blue or purple. The crowd at Chicago's Grant Park, tearily maudlin, grinning moronically and/or nodding manically, roared back, "Yes, we can." Millions of other Americans watching on TV echoed the words with the same mass hysteria: "Yes, we can." Even that irrepressible band of US comedians, took their tongue out of their cheek, and let it hang out in awed silence. And the rest of the world said, "Wow! America is Barack on track. It is indeed the land of the free, and the home of the brave it. It can do the impossible." Big deal! We have out-sauced them in that department.
We are not talking of such small achievements like a country which hasn't solved poverty managing to send a rocket to the moon ? and do so at closing-down-sale prices. Or of a country which hasn't removed illiteracy managing to export brilliant techies to the developed world like they were mass-produced dosa mix. No, i'm not even talking of a country which is still to produce a respectable number of respected politicians managing to be a world model of democracy,
election after election. Even our doddering tribals carried piggyback into polling booths cast their votes more speedily than last Tuesday's TV images of Mr & Mrs Obama struggling with their ballot papers.
No, i am talking of the truly impossible, improbable, unbelievable achievements which we manage to pull off day after day ? to the despair of the average Indian and the delight of the gluttonous media. Take only those which occurred in the week when Obama pulled off the resurrection of America.
Can we have either a practising sadhvi or a serving senior army officer masterminding a terrorist plot? Can we have, both, the yogi and the commissar involved so deeply in it? Yes, we can.
Can we say that Hindu killers of innocents are less guilty than Muslim ditto if the former have acted in retaliation, but refuse to apply the same logic when Muslim bomb blasts were triggered by Hindu genocide? Yes we can.
When another sadhvi, Uma Bharti, slaps Anil Rai, state vice-president of her own party, in full view of the national media, can they simply later dismiss it as "a family affair"? Yes, they can.
Can we remove from public consciousness India's glycerine soap, perpetrator of saas-bahu regression, creator of a whole social, political and even corporate metaphor, kyunki its production house and TV channel are involved in the mother-in-law of all battles over TRP? Yes, we can.
Can we allow the BCCI to challenge a code of conduct which they themselves helped to draft when the ICC bans Gautam Gambhir? Yes we can.
Can rapist sons of influential fathers elude justice for weeks? Yes, they can.
Can we permit a chief minister to waste official time denouncing Hindus for wearing tilaks and the sacred thread? Yes, we can.
Can we let models become role models for whole generations regardless of economic status or even age? Yes, we can.
Can you match this, America? No, you can't!
Alec Smart said, "Like Henry Ford's cars, the Americans can have a president in any colour of their choice, provided he's Black."
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