Inauguration Poet Elizabeth Alexander Recites at Obama's Swearing- In Ceremony

"Words Can Inspire" said Barack Obama in one of his speeches earlier on this week; one wonders if Alexander's did...

Was Alexander advocating for the power of words or was it for "love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance"?

Transcript of Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem

1:25 PM PST, January 20, 2009

The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander, as provided by CQ transcriptions.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

"Hope-Obama Fever/ Fervor" - a Worldwide Phenomenon?

I received an email from a friend who is not a US resident, and is visiting Washington DC as a World Bank executive. He witnessed a pre-inaugural event at the Lincoln Memorial Center, and his observations and reactions to it and to the forthcoming inauguration were very interesting. With his permission I am posting them here:


"I just returned from the Inauguration Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. To be honest, I went to see, for free, the great names of music that
I so love and admire - live! There were Bruce Springsteen, John
Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, U2, Shakira, Usher, Beyonce (who I didn't
actually see), and many others, as also actors like Samuel Jackson and
Queen Latifa. It was a great opportunity. And it was truly wonderful
to hear them sing and perform.

But I have come away with an experience very unlike - and much more
profound - than witnessing a rock band perform. This was truly the
spirit of America that I got to feel and see. There was such a mass
of people, at least a couple of hundred thousand, people who had
travelled many miles to be there, to celebrate and participate in a
celebration that was theirs. Each one there, I could see, owned the
moment. This was their country, their celebration, their victory, and
Barack Obama, their leader, their hero. It was amazing to see,
whenever the Jumbotron showed a close up of Obama - singing with the
music or just nodding his head to the beat - the crowd cheered
lustily. And the cheers were much louder than those even for their
greatly loved and admired stars that performed on the stage.

Democracy is alive and well in America. There were whites and blacks
and latinos and asians, and all united in their ownership of the great
moment. Truly, they feel the ownership because they have helped
create it - they have voted. And they know each vote counted, and
they know that that was their vote that got Obama to the White House.

There was much talk of history during the concert - the music was
interspersed with short speeches from celebrities (Tiger Woods was one
such speaker).  There were the usual references to Abraham Lincoln and
Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy and Roosevelt and, of
course, George Washington.  But, today when I heard the speakers quote
Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King I felt a jab in my heart, I felt
a swelling in my throat, I felt a shiver down my spine.  The words
acquired a meaning for me today.  These men were great, their ideas
were great, and this country and its people that recognised their
greatness and gave them such a hallowed place in its history are,
therefore, great.

Sure, the world is going through real tough times: there are conflicts
in every hotspot from the middle east to India-Pakistan, the world
economy is going through the worst downturn in decades, terrrorism is
rampant, religion is being abused; as Shakespeare wrote in Julius
Caesar - "Oh judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have
lost their reason". Yet, seeing the spirit of freedom and celebration
and democracy and victory that I got to see today, I have hope. The
world shall yet be a better place. America has shown how and where it
can begin." RA

Obama Fervor is catching on!

A Closet in Disarray!

p
Bursting at the seams
with clutter, so it seems.
Clothes on hangers placed,
that forever their remain;
these hangered prima-donas,
an ordered facade maintain.
The many in bundles strewn,
those donned morn and noon,
in crumpled heaps they lie,
yet each day they have to fly.

Quite akin to life
where inane glitterati,
relationships effaces,
and gradually takes up
life's prime time spaces.

Sanjay Gupta's Road to Fame: From Doctor to Embedded War Reporter to TV Health Advisor to Chief Health Educator of the USA?

What does it take to be 'Surgeon General' of the USA?

"The Office of the Surgeon General, under the direction of the Surgeon General, oversees the operations of the 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and provides support for the Surgeon General in the accomplishment of his other duties. The Office is part of the Office of Public Health and Science in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General serves as America's chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury."

A few hours ago President Elect Obama picked Sanjay Gupta as his nominee for Surgeon General, and that made people wonder about the qualifications it takes to be considered for this position. "Gupta, 39, is a US-born graduate of the American system whose parents, Damayanti and Subhash Gupta, moved to the US in the 1960s to work at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. Sanjay grew up in Michigan and received his undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical Center. He completed his residency in neurological surgery within the University of Michigan Health System." (Times of India)

"Gupta hosts "House Call" on CNN, contributes reports to CBS News, and writes a column for Time magazine. He is a neurosurgeon and is on the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. During the Clinton administration, he was a White House fellow and special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton." (Washington Post)

On a more personal note,"Gupta was named one of the Sexiest Men of 2003 by People magazine. That was before he married fellow University of Michigan graduate Rebecca Sue Olson, an attorney, in 2004." (Times of India)

"Slumdog Millionaire" - A Metaphor for India?

Slumdog Millionaire is a refreshingly different movie; perhaps an expose of sorts, but disguised under the soft nuances of a romance. The setting of the movie is again a surprise, as it's Mumbai 2008; the producer couldn't have imagined that Mumbai would hold spotlight, world-wide, just as his movie was to be released!

Danny Boyle, the director of the movie, has a reputation for making controversial movies, and this was no different as it elicited some extreme reactions from the audience. Some felt the movie was a misrepresentation of India, others had a problem with the myopic lens of the film maker whose depiction of India was apparently 'lopsided'; though the fact that the story writer is Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, gets Danny Boyle off the hot seat. Then there were those viewers who were convinced the movie would be nominated for the Oscars for it's direction and screenplay. However, there was one thing all these viewers had in common: they were all of Indian origin. All of this made me want to see the movie and decide for myself!

Slumdog Millionaire turned out to be a very entertaining movie that showcased some stark scenarios in Mumbai like that of abject poverty leading to child abuse and prostitution. It also highlighted the Hindu Muslim divide in Mumbai leading to violence and oppression for the underprivileged. Having said this, one would imagine the movie to be a somber tale of struggle with little reprieve. However, that's where the movie surprises; the stark reality of Mumbai is so naturally embedded in the storyline that it ceases to be revolting. For instance the 7 year old protagonist being covered in human feces does not evoke shock or revulsion as much as it does laughter and empathy for the passionate young film lover. 7 year old Jamal is clearly determined to get his favorite Bollywood actor's autograph, even if that meant going through a hole in the ground which happened to be the slum dwellings public-toilet-facility! It is this, the master weaving of the somber amid the tender and the humorous, that allows the movie to get away with the shocking and inhuman scenarios it presents; all apparently happening in Mumbai.

The movie is about a young boy called Jamal who serves 'chai' (tea) to employees in a call center in Mumbai. He is suddenly thrown into the spotlight when he becomes the most unlikely finalist on a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" TV game show which would earn him a million dollars if he were to win it. The movie glides smoothly between the the protagonist's past and present, by the end of which the viewer has a clearer picture of who the protagonist is and why he is so. The three actors who play his part through the different phases of his life do justice to the character as they provide him tremendous credibility; it is difficult to believe that the 19 year old Jamal of the movie is in reality a British actor, Dev Patel, who hardly knows Mumbai!

I would recommend this movie to anyone who believes art is but the artists perspective. As the audience, we don't have to be one with the perspective or with the vision that is born out of it, though we could appreciate the artist's passion for having created a piece for us to ponder upon. In fact I pondered on this particular one a trifle too long; I now see Jamal, the unlikely finalist wanting to be millionaire, as a metaphor for 21st century India, the surprise contender for being the top economic growth engine of the world.

Definitely a movie worth watching.

The Book of Troubles" by Ann Marlowe - A Memoir or a Delusional Romance?

It took me the longest time to post on this one - "The Book of Trouble" by Ann Marlowe. I can't think of a better reason for this other than the fact that I couldn't quite come to terms with the social conflicts as presented by Marlowe. She candidly states her stance in the prologue itself saying, " I don't want to have a relationship, much less a committed relationship. I want to meet someone and fall in love and live with him for the rest of my life." Yet the falling in love she captures in the book is jinxed from the word go. What is even stranger, Ms. Marlowe is aware of the tentative nature of her relationship, yet, she spends the next hundred some pages justifying this tentativeness!

Ann Marlowe, a widely traveled journalist with stellar academic credentials, appears to have written this book either when she was on a sentimental high, or else she was brooding on the boredom of single living as a forty year old American woman. It could also be that her extended stay in and around Afghanistan had impacted her deeply, and Afghanistan's exotic culture still had her in its grip.

The book shifts between Afghanistan and the USA and is ridden with conflicts of gender, age, ethnicity, traditions and religion, mostly within the realm of romance. Ms. Marlowe, who is at the center of it all, is constantly debating her stand on these conflicts, trying to assess the conflicts the Afghan way and then looks at them the American way. There are weak attempts at defending the American lifestyle and how it deals with these issues, but somehow Ms. Marlowe always appears to have an Afghan bias, to the point that she defends machismo saying it lets the man be chivalrous, a trait apparently the average American woman of today misses. On the same note, Marlowe even lends credence to arranged marriages and the covering of the female face with a 'chadar'. The examples and statistic for both of which are questionable. What is more, this memoir of Marlowe's has her, a Jewish woman in her 40s, in love with an Afghan man at least 10 years younger than her, and one who tells her outright, "The Western idea of romantic love is an illusion. I don't believe in it. I want to have an arranged marriage. I want to marry an Afghan girl. A seventeen-year-old virgin." This is where one wonders, "What was Marlowe thinking!" Was this the falling in love she was referring to in the prologue? As for the book being 'a Romance', well, it is one that has 'trouble' written all over it! "The Book of Trouble" is the memoir of a delusional 40 year old who so desperately wants to experience 'love' with a difference, that she willingly suspends disbelief and involves herself in an affair that clearly has no future from the onset.

However, there is a softer and saner side to the memoir as Marlowe unfolds to the reader an Afghanistan that is simple and very understandable. She takes us into the inner folds of family life in Afghanistan, and it is a most endearing picture that she reveals; one which could make an American reader like me uncomfortable. The simplicity of interaction within Afghan families makes that society very appealing to an American who has long lived in an individualistic society. Belonging to a tight knit Afghan group, in this case an extended family, eases the burdens that come with individualistic living where you are accountable for every action of yours. Marlowe has undoubtedly seen Afghanistan very closely and does its people and its culture justice, in that she is very accepting of differences, analyzes them impartially, and partakes of them with appreciation and gratitude. The Bush administration ought to have had her as an adviser before they went there to bring democracy to this 'third world nation'!

"The Book of Troubles' is an apt title for this memoir since I too am 'troubled' writing a recommendation for this book. Would I suggest you read it? Given that I've called Ms. Marlowe, the protagonist of this memoir, delusional, it would almost seem absurd for me to recommend it. However, this is also the book that I could hardly put down once I began reading it! So I suggest you delve into this 'troubled book' and see whether 'the troubles' were worth your read.

Thanks Saadia for recommending the book!

The Beatles Beat - "I'm not afraid, I'm shy!"

This piece was inspired by someone who said
"I'm not afraid, I'm shy!"



Words unsaid...
eyes unmet...
hands unheld...
...leave steps untaken!

A lidded glance
for a proffered hand.
A tentative gesture
with a somewhat smile.
The spoken silence
amid hushed replies.

A hurried exit
so obviously distraught.
A forlorn look
trailing tender thought.
A lingering hope
leaving sanity besot.

Fiercely though you care,
words you'll never say.
People'll never know
the warmth beneath the cold,
and even less...
the love you left untold.

Mehreen Jabbar's "Ramchand Pakistani" - A Truth, Touchingly Told!

It was ironic that I happened to watch the movie "Ramchand Pakistani" the evening before the tragic events unfolded in Mumbai last week. In the light of which, the following comment of Javed Jabbar, the movie's writer-producer, carried special meaning for me:“While the story is very sharply drawn in a political context of extreme polarisation, what it attempts to do is to project the unifying human dimension.” These words gain further significance when tensions appear to be escalating between the two nuclear nations in the aftermath of Mumbai's terrorist attack.

A year or so ago a visitor on my blog recommended the movie 'Ramchand Pakistani' as a must- see movie made by a Pakistani filmmaker, and I'm glad I took his advice. Mehreen Jabbar has made a movie that both warms and shocks the heart . Based on a real event, the movie captures the travails of an accidental and unusual intruder into 'enemy' territory. Jabbar manages to raise some essential questions about how and why national borders heighten and highlight individual differences which would otherwise go unnoticed. The land on this side of the border is no different from what lies on the other side, and accordingly the people living on either side of it have adapted to its peculiarities. This adaptation would normally make people connect, but in this case the border patrol and the white stone demarcations between India and Pakistan ensure that this connect never happens. It is against this backdrop that Jabbar's unusual protagonist steps in as the intruder who accidentally ventures onto the 'other side'. What unfolds is a series of events presented with utmost sincerity and simplicity, and it is to the credit of the cast, Rashid Farooqui, Nandita Das, Usmaan Abbasi, and Navaid Jabbar, that despite the matter-of-fact narrative, the viewer often has a catch in his throat watching helpless innocents fall prey to the senseless and insensitive mandates of politicking.

Watching this movie reminded me of a 20 minute documentary I had watched some time ago titled "The Little Terrorist", and I want to believe that both these movies are based on that same true life event that happened during the Kargil standoff. "The Little Terrorist" was a telling comment on the ludicrousness of border disputes between two countries that are home to a people sharing a long and glorious history together, and are therefore culturally akin in their lifestyles especially in their passion for Cricket. "Ramchand Pakistani", takes that affinity a step further and poignantly lays out that 'closeness' of the two people as Ramchand, the accidental intruder, finds himself imprisoned on the other side of the border.