OH-BAMA

Where were you when Obama was declared president? When he gave his acceptance speech?

Last week was historic and it was celebrated around the world. Early on Wednesday morning (late Tuesday in the US), ex-pats, local high school students and local Chennai residents congregated in a conference room at the Taj Hotel, a five-star luxury hotel. The U.S. Consulate had organized a huge election returns event for 1000s of people. They had live CNN feeds, political analysts, a fake voting booth, life-size cutouts of Obama and McCain, and red white and blue balloons everywhere. It was the most patriotic event I’ve been to in years and I was giddy and nervous with excitement as the returns came in. While the main room with the large screen TVs was exciting, the young ex-pat (dems abroad group) crowd migrated to another room with couches and lounge chairs. About 25 of us crowded around a large screen TV and watched as the CNN predicted that Obama had won. We were ecstatic; there was cheering, clapping, and tears. When Obama finally gave his acceptance speech, the room went silent. We clapped and cheered with the live crowds in Chicago and a few people shouted out “Yes, we can”. As I looked around at my fellow Americans, all living and working in the Chennai, I saw tears of joy and expressions of relief – change has happened and America will remember this day forever.

For the first time in 8 years, I felt proud to be an American. I’m proud to be from a country that could recognize the need for change and work toward it. I’m proud to be from a country that is trying to look beyond race and instead at the qualities of a candidate. And I’m proud to be from a country that has a dynamic new leader ready to take on the problems left by the last administration. It is an exciting time and I look forward to watching Obama lead in the coming years. After his acceptance speech, with tears in my eyes, I turned to my friends and said ‘Now, I can go home’. With a new competent leader in the oval office, I won’t dread returning to US soil – cringing and closing my eyes as I walk by the huge portrait of W hanging on the wall in the immigration halls at airports. I look forward to my next flight home and proudly walking by the portrait of Obama – a true leader and someone I can be proud to call my president. The day after Obama was declared president, I woke up early and ran to buy all the local English papers. Living overseas provides a unique and interesting perspective to American politics. Amazingly, most Indians know more about our system of government than we do. And the international excitement and importance of Obama’s win was explicit as the front pages of all the major newspapers were dedicated to America’s 44th president.