Why they have clearer skies

Last month, I was in California for a couple of meetings. California just happens to be my favorite place to go to in the US. There's so much natural beauty and so many things to see, so many things to do that I invariably run out of time. I can spend entire evenings sitting at a cafe on University Avenue in Palo Alto, or take a drive on the I680 through the mountains, or walk around near Pier 39 in San Francisco, or better still...make the short drive to Napa Valley and enjoy the vino.

Throughout the trip last time, I regretted not having a good camera with me. I'm still waiting for the Nikon D90 prices to come down (I'm pretty sure that is the camera I want to buy). And I noticed that the skies were so much bluer and the scenery so much more crisper. I wondered if that was because California was higher up from the Equator and so the light fell differently.

Not so!

I was in Delhi almost the whole of the last week and part of this week and I saw that there was poor visibility even when the day was nearing noon. Mostly because of the smog. It looked a lot worse towards the evening when the Sun looked like a red orb hanging in the sky, filtered through a grey atmosphere. Taking off from Delhi exactly demonstrated that. The flight went through a grey layer before it broke through and clear blue skies revealed themselves.

Even when I stand in the balcony of my office on Kasturba Road in Bangalore, I can see that thin layer of grey (not as much as Delhi, but still there) colouring the otherwise clear blue skies. And I now know why the skies in the US and most "foreign" countries look so good.

They have NO POLLUTION!

Here we have trucks, busses and lorries spewing their horrible exhausts, auto rickshaws contributing their bluish grey fumes, motorbikes adding their partially burnt fuel remains and finally the dust from all the surrounding that makes our skies look murky. In most developed countries, there are lawns of really crappy grass instead of open spaces, not only because it makes the place look prettier, but also because the grass holds the earth together and does not let the wind kick up the dust. In India, we have piles of sand and dust lying around unused from held up construction sites or from pot holes that are yet to be repaired. There is just too much dust on the roads which gets kicked up from the relentless plying of vehicles on the roads. So what remains is a highly potent combination of dust, fumes, odour and smoke which makes breathing on our streets a practical challenge.

I know we have pollution laws in India, but we need stricter application of these laws. Just like we need stricter traffic laws. Everyone is in such a hurry to get somewhere that they usually end up taking longer to get there because they caused a traffic jam. And there they stand with their engines running, burning more fuel and contributing more to the already high pollution levels we have. I talked a little bit about this in one of my previous blogs, but this is different. Earlier, I was talking about how a little bit of traffic law enforcement, a little consideration from people driving on the streets and some common sense can make the driving experience in India a lot better. Now I am talking about the implications of these conditions on the pollution levels we experience.

In a country of our size, I know it is difficult to achieve consensus. But that is what makes it our individual responsibility to demonstrate good behaviour one person at a time. We cannot change the whole world unless we change ourselves.

Think about it, India. If we have to demonstrate ourselves as one of the leaders in the future world, we need the equivalent of the Clean Air Act. We need more courtesy on the roads and we need a little bit of patience on the roads. No amount of infrastructure the Government can provide will be enough and unless we change our mindset, we will still be honking our car horns and driving on the wrong side of the road to get to another place in a hurry despite having nice expressways.

It beings with one. It begins with us. It starts here with me.

I just had to blog about this

Yesterday, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America.

Let me say that again!

Yesterday, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America!

Do you know what this means? Do you understand the implications? 

A black man from Hawaii with a white mother from Kansas, a black father from Kenya and Indonesian cousins who was a community organizer after he left as Editor of the Harvard Law Review has won the most coveted contest of all. He will be the 44th President of the United States. 

And you know what, the whole world was watching. Not just news channels and people in power, but ordinary citizens of Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Kenya, not to forget India and so many more countries watched with bated breath as this inspirational person that a lot of us have been following for the last 4 years won a landslide victory over a white POW long time senator. During the last 2 years since he announced his candidature for the Presidency, Barack Obama has endeared himself to the world. People have flocked to his rallies (you should have seen the more-than-200,000 people who turned up at the Teirgarten in Germany) to listen to him and to feel inspired.

Not one thing that the Republicans threw at him could stick. They called him a Muslim (nothing wrong with that), a Socialist (something that the US government is doing right now with the 700 Billion $ Wall Street bailout), a Terrorist Pal (huh?), an Elitist (and I would have thought that is exactly what a President should be...a lot better than the average person), Weak (because he said he will talk to regimes like Iran, North Korea and Venezuela...sounds like a good strategy to me) and finally...not being Black enough! But none of them stuck as Barack completely changed the electoral map of the US by winning key Republican states while retaining the traditionally strong Democratic states and a lot of the swing states. He won by a landslide margin of more than 200 Electoral College votes!

As he said in the keynote address during the Kerry campaign convention and in his speech yesterday, it is all about the United States of America. And the impact that his presidency will have on the rest of the world is enormous. 

Last night, I made my daughter stay up past her bed time so that I could get back from the airport and tell her a story. I spoke about how the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock and settled America, how the United States was formed on an idea, how slavery began, how the Civil War in America affected it and how Abraham Lincoln ended slavery to keep to what the US constitution says at the very beginning. "We hold these truths to be self evident. All men are created equal!"

And I told her about how women did not get the right to vote for a long time. And how Black people had to wait even longer. And how Rosa Parks refused to get off a bus to start what became the Civil Rights Movement. And how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired everyone around him with his "I have a dream" speech.

And that is what I wanted her to do. Exactly that. Have a dream. Cherish it. Follow it. Work towards it. And fulfill it. As Barack Obama did by winning this election. And simultaneously fulfilling the dreams of millions of Black Americans by shattering that last barrier. You could see Rev. Al Sharpton and Oprah Winfrey with tears streaming down their eyes as they watched their man accept the outcome of the election and who will go on to become the 44th President of the United States.

As Jon Stewart once said, "I don't understand when politicians go around saying 'I'm one of you. I'm just like you'. Don't be like me. Be WAY better than me. Be so much better than me that you make me feel safe. And get me healthcare". And that to me is what Barack Obama stands for. 

Someone with no backing. A self made man. Intelligent enough to be the first black Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Exceptionally inspiring. Phenomenal at his articulation. And more importantly, his ability to bring people together and present a hope of better things.

I'm sure he has HUGE problems when he gets sworn in. Two costly wars. An economy down the tube. A broken healthcare system. A burgeoning fiscal deficit. And all of this will take time to solve. But this is what I think...

George W. Bush once said "History will be the judge of whether I was right or wrong". And I think that history has spoken. For that same history, to leave a world far better than what it is now, for the sake of his two daughters who will only be 16 and 14 when he leaves office, he has NO OTHER CHOICE but to be the greatest President in the history of the United States. 

Not because he's the first black President. Not because of the state in which he receives the Oval Office. Not for any other reason but to leave a legacy for his two young daughters to say that Daddy did a good job and made the world a better place for them.

I have followed this man ever since he made the keynote speech at John Kerry's nomination and have been fascinated by him and his ability to inspire people. There is not a speech of him that I have not see, not a single interview I have missed and I saw all the debates. And I think the best candidate won.

I even have a "Obama'08" bumper sticker which I got shipped across from the US. 

In the hope of a better world, all the best to you Barack! You need it and I'm sure you will do a great job. Here's to peace, prosperity and a world with more smiles.