Welcome Mr. President!

From the Plantation fields to Pennsylvania Avenue, it sure was an arduous journey for a community and its leader, Barack Hussein Obama, who took oath as the 44th president of the most powerful nation in the world (may be!).No surprise that the entire world is waiting in awe of, how this frail looking individual can stroke his magic wand to ring in miracles and to stroke the confidence, which gets eroded everyday. Credit sure goes to the Americans for they had to make a wild choice of a woman or a coloured individual for the top post and sure they did put to display their free spirit and egalitarianism in choosing Obama over a biblical, rather, less hawkish white. Not sure if any of the European country is ready for a moment like this.

While the world celebrates the ascendancy of a black from the backdrop of apartheid, it is no news to India. While the world talks in length about the transformation from the days of Rosa Parks, our nation does have an exemplary track record in affirmative action and in providing an equitable society. A backward class, a women, a Muslim, a Sikh in Presidency, a Dalit as the Chief Justice, a powerful Dalit Chief Minister and we can go on and on. Not so surprisingly then has been the successful adaptation of our Gandhian metaphor in civil rights movements across the globe - be it in South Africa or the United States.

During the course of the election process, there were some statistics on how the entire world preferred Obama over McCain, if they had a choice of voting. By theory, in a bi-polar setup, human preference could be a factor of true merit of one individual or by a sheer rejection of the other.

Take for example the political situation in Tamil Nadu - it is always one of the better evils among the two dravidian parties - not that one definitely overpowers the other in ideology, performance or governance.
Over the past two terms of ruling, George W has been successful in garnering so much animosity across every nook of the globe, that no wonder such positivity in abundance came in favor of Obama. People had no other choice, but, to welcome Change from a menial, who has landed the country and the globe in a ditch.

Overblowing of this 'Change' trumpet could possibly out-smart Obama himself, for he is treading into territories and acceding challenges which can become humanly impossible for anyone to manage. The legacy he inherits and the environment both within and outside the United States is simmering with issues that are extremely volatile and the expectation is so huge on an apparently frail shoulder.

Two major wars being waged on as of today, a middle-east scenario that is more precarious than before, the unruly brat in the house - Israel - is only making the task much worse over a fragile piece of land, the dire need to conjure an exit strategy out of Iraq - all leaves him with not too many allies across the globe. Sure enough the bullies in the form of Putin and Medvedev would give him some migraine on the missile-shield front, so would Iran. The once 'super power' situation being challenged by a stronger China, and the possible shift of power focus across the globe from a weaker europe, are all realities that he has to confront with. Already there are signs of few grey hair showing up on his head and that could keep him think for a moment - 'What a mess did I get into?'

Internally, the nation as such is confronted by ironies of contrasting proportions. An economy that is sagging down the drain by the day, while a cosmopolitan president spends more than a hundred million dollars for inauguration. Ever growing line of the jobless versus the madness of equal magnitude to buy an iPhone 3G or to watch a star trek thriller. Too much ofa fiscal deficit to surmount versus the Madoffs who still manage to make mockery of the regulatory framework and make wall street look like vegas strip!

As David Letterman recently put it in his Top 10, Obama's new rhetoric could be "Yes we can...or may be not, it's hard to say"

But, history makes us believe that the United States as a nation has put to display their resiliency and enterprise spirit more often and the world(still) needs a stronger United States for its locomotion and expects a change at any cost.

Extraordinary situations mandate extraordinary men. Unlike his predecessor,Obama, who single-handedly ran a campaign with the best of spirit and faith, appears to be the right person for the resurrection.
Hope he can proclaim for his next term - 'Yes, we did!'

Welcome to the Reality - Mr. President!