The President has come, is coming, will come....

Like the billions across the world, I was happy to see Obama at the swearing in ceremony, although bemused by desi channels go wild with the detailing. After all, he is not India's president!

This morning, I read that some roads at Gorai village just got a makeover, because the honorable President of India was coming! Villagers were angry that only roads she would get driven on, got a makeover. 

For all the inspiration I found in Obama's speech about the US of A being a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, of the need to work at remaking America, this bit of news back home, and not far from where I live, was such a dampener!

True we hate Bush and are relieved he has finally relinquished his post. True we are angry with Israel's leaders for bombarding the Gaza Strip. Living as we do in India, we do not need others who we can hate. Our politicians making up for a motley group do inspire us enough to hate them.

What a difference! The man who's just taken hold of America's top office talks of uniting. And has even extended an olive branch to the Muslim world. And here, our politicians care not for their own fellow Indians, indulging in divisive politics instead!

We Indians! We need a chief minister, a prime minister or a president to visit our backyard so that it can be cleaned!