Obama in India: First Marriage, then Love

[Bang Galore]

By Paul Beckett

The relationship between India and the United States has seen much progress since the presidency of former President Bill Clinton. With President Barack Obama’s visit to to India the relationship between the two countries seems close to fruition.

In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, we heard several politicians say there was no reason to worry about the chaos, it would all come together like an Indian wedding – joyously and at the last minute.

President Barack Obama’s arrival here Saturday has inspired us to riff on some matrimonial imagery of a different sort: That of a nervous groom, the U.S., being sent to an arranged marriage with a somewhat reluctant bride, India.

Consider Bill Clinton as the man who introduced this power couple in 2000. There was much excitement in both families just to be meeting people they’d heard a lot about but hadn’t actually met face to face. There was nothing to be lost; much fun was had. George W. Bush acted as the friendly auntie who moved things forward to the point where an engagement was sealed with the promise of great things to come.

Now, with Mr. Obama arriving in India with a vast U.S. guest list – probably the largest wedding delegation ever to leave U.S. shores – there is a little reticence on both sides as this arranged marriage actually comes close to fruition.

Both sides know it is a good idea. In fact, they have to get together if these two great families are to survive intact and healthy for generations. But this is serious stuff now, not just nice-to-see-yous and lets-stay-in-touches, but two sides that are going to share a common future. It’s butterflies in the stomach time.

The groom (and we only picked the U.S. as the groom since its diplomacy has been considerably more testosterone-filled than India’s in the past decade) is nervous, a little distracted, seems to have a lot on his mind, doesn’t want to put a foot wrong. Like most grooms, he cares more about charming his hosts and about what he should not say than he does about what he should say.

The bride’s family, in contrast, hopes he’ll just get straight to the point. Is he going to mention that ugly business that everyone is gossiping about: Isn’t he sort of “seeing” someone else just up the road from a clan that this family can’t stand? Is he going to renounce her publicly, as he should for heaven’s sake, if he’s about to tie the knot? When will he ditch her and declare his undying love for India?

Instead, soon after his arrival, he says how much he likes being in this country and admires the family and everything. But the bride’s family isn’t happy and the bride’s cousins in the media sit around all afternoon bemoaning his lack of desire and taking potshots.

Still, all is not lost. The big delegation of guests shows they are willing to do their part to bring the two families together. There is a grand exchange of presents, to the tune of $14.9 billion. And there is much felicitating, along with some gentle ribbing of the “now-that-our-houses-are-uniting-we-expect-even-more” variety. All very positive, a good start to the celebration from that standpoint.

As with most Indian weddings, this is a three-day affair. The second day was for the families to relax and get to know each other better. He does mention the other woman by name but really only to say that she is having a difficult time of it and India and the U.S. should try to do what they can to help. The cousins tut, tut and ask why he’s still sending her money.

Which brings us to Monday, the wedding day. This is the moment, in his address to all the assembled guests at the formal reception and the banquet afterward, when he has the chance to win the in-laws over completely, to get them genuinely enthused about the future of this union, to show that he is really, truly, in love with his new bride and is ready to make a serious commitment.

We expect this to be like many arranged marriages: One that starts positively but with some misgivings and nervousness on both sides. It is only over time, as the couple gets to know each other better, builds trust, steps in helpfully at awkward moments, and shows signs of genuine affection and mutual interest that they can declare that most delightful and optimistic of romantic phrases: “First it was marriage, then it was love.”

Obama in India: First Marriage, then Love - India Real Time - WSJ

 

[somebozo]

i am surprised how much spicy curry and chapati this man is able to digest in return for some business..real success would have been touting Chinese reserves for American sales where he failed miserably and now perusing the Indians for the same goal. I hope india will get some good tech and tot out of this deal!

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

May be india will but US bonds and stocks me I am keeping my currency as GOLD and hid it under ground when banks go down ... I will still have MY GOLD

 

[fast and furious]

May be india will but US bonds and stocks me I am keeping my currency as GOLD and hid it under ground when banks go down ... I will still have MY GOLD

And do what with it ? Sell it for the inflated currency.

Good planning man when banks go down its the hard cash that talks not your investments(land,gold,stocks and bond).

 

[nForce]

kya hai yaar??Khush karne ke liye yeh ab kuch bhi bolega???

Mr.Obama himself had a love marriage....

 

[LadyGaga]

What a crappy piece of journalism.Obama's visit has turned out to be what it was scripted to be.There were no surprises,and no there was no sensationalism.Lots of impromptu,good natured talk,and hopefully everybody goes home happy especially the businessmen.

 

[Bhim]

Barack Obama's address to Parliament

Obama speach in Parliament..Enjoy

 

[AR]

i was listening obama speech,

he wants India not just to look east but to engage east

he also said India must interfere in Myanmar for democracy... he suggested it would not be interference in sovereignty of Myanmar(India supported leadership in mayanmar till yet and is a close friend of myanmar)

He said US wants india to behave like a global leader, as a friend of US

He wants indian support on Iran issue

He wants greater Indian role in Afganistan

 

[Rig Vedic]

Obama Should Have Thanked India
Link: Philip Goldberg: Obama Should Have Thanked India

Speaking of the American-Indian relationship, President Obama predicted it would be "one of the defining partnerships of the twenty-first century." No doubt it will be. But in fact, our two nations have been trading partners of sorts for more than two centuries, and Americans have derived far more from the arrangement than they realize.

As the land of material discovery and innovation, the U.S. has given India advantages from electric lighting to computer technology, not to mention the inventions that made Bollywood a larger producer of movies than Hollywood. What we've imported in return is far more subtle, but perhaps even more profound. Ages ago, the vast subcontinent birthed explorers and innovators who focused on the inner realm. Those geniuses -- spiritual sages or scientists of consciousness, depending on your perspective -- gave us, through a series of modern translators and adapters, insights that have profoundly influenced religion, healthcare, psychology, the arts and other areas of life. The way we understand ourselves and the universe has been shaped by India more than we can readily appreciate.

It began when early translations of Hindu and Buddhist texts, along with scholarly commentaries, arrived from Europe and found their way to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The philosopher who has been called our "founding thinker" absorbed Indian philosophy with the gusto of a gourmand sampling savory curries for the first time. It helped to shape the Emersonian world-view, which gave rise to process philosophy and American pragmatism, as well as to a literary tradition so pervasive that Yale's Harold Bloom called the Sage of Concord "the mind of America." Anyone who reads Emerson, whether a high school student for an assignment or an adult for illumination, gets a dose of Indian philosophy, whether or not he or she realizes it.

The same can be said of anyone who reads Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. The Bhagavad Gita that Thoreau borrowed from his mentor, Emerson, was his constant companion on Walden Pond. When Obama noted the debt that America owes to Mahatma Gandhi for his immense influence on Martin Luther King, he left out the initial phase of that great U.S.-India volley: Thoreau, who called the Vedas "the royal road for the attainment of Great Knowledge," was one of Gandhi's inspirations. Whitman too was touched by India's "deep diving bibles and legends" and "far-darting beams of the spirit," and poets from Emily Dickinson to Bob Dylan were all touched by our national bard.

That was just the beginning. The pioneers of the so-called New Thought movement drank deeply of Eastern ideas, giving rise to Theosophy, Unity Church, Science of Mind and other institutions that became spiritual homes to an army of seekers. Later, the swamis of the Vedanta Society tutored men whose collective impact on the culture has been incalculable: the British expatriates Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley; the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell; Huston Smith, the most influential religious scholar of the past fifty years; and J.D. Salinger, whose later works taught Eastern Philosophy 101 in fictional form.

Come 1968, the Indian tsunami triggered by the Beatles' now-legendary visit to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave us far more than The White Album (as if that weren't enough). Over a million people learned Transcendental Meditation, while scientists began the enterprise that has since produced over a thousand experiments on meditative practices. Seminal books like Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda and Be Here Now by Ram Dass (nee Richard Alpert) were devoured. Youngsters who studied with gurus went on to become scholars who taught religion in a new way, enlarged the study of psychology to encompass the spiritual dimension, introduced new methods to psychotherapy and began to rethink the nature of consciousness. Self-help authors like John Gray of Men Are from Mars fame adapted Eastern ideas to books and seminars. Popular thinkers like Deepak Chopra and Ken Wilber integrated them into books that appeal as much to secular types as to spiritual seekers. Medical experts like Dean Ornish incorporated yogic teachings into mainstream health practices. And the trickle of Americans going to yoga classes became a mighty river that's now fifteen to twenty million strong.

If you think these are minor phenomena compared to the economic and geopolitical issues discussed by Obama and Indian leaders, consider how many healthcare dollars are saved when people practice meditation and yoga instead of buying drugs and undergoing surgery. More important, India's philosophy of Vedanta and the methodologies of Yoga gave the land of the free a rational, pragmatic, individuated way to conceive of spirituality. And more important still, consider what India's ancient pluralism -- embodied in the Vedic maxim, "Truth is one, the wise call it by different names" -- offers a modern world torn by religious and ethnic tension. Half a century ago, the great historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that India's spiritual legacy offers us "the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family -- and, in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves." For all these gifts, both manifest and yet to be realized, Obama should have offered his partner a sincere "Namaste."