“so you voted for change”

having just watched obama get sworn in (and being bittersweet about the fact i’m not in dc to help celebrate), i figured this was as good a time as any to actually mention how obama’s election went down for me in the hoobs.

because i had legally changed my residency from dc (farewell, 1121!) to my dad’s house in md, i had to change my voter registration, which took a dangerously long time.  in the end i had to have dad fedex me my absentee ballot, which i fedexed back to md the next day.  the fedex from hubli cost 1800 rupees – about $40 – which i was a little bitter about when i read in an article the next day that fedex had been offering a reduced rate to international american voters that ended literally the day before i sent mine…

i was amused to think that i was paying to vote, which seems unAmerican somehow.  but this election was important (even if md was a given blue state) and i wanted to make sure my vote was part of history.

so, election totals were rolling in starting around 8am, hubli time.  i had explained to my office that i was staying at home for the morning to watch the results roll in.  our tv gets a  weird assortment of news channels, and it was kind of interesting to flip through them and see how fast these journalists were jumping to conclusions and hear some of the politically incorrect statements that were being tossed around.

around 10am, the current (aka power) went off, leaving me and noelle in front of an empty tv.  no fear, i retrieved my laptop from my room, and we contented ourselves with watching the internet news sites, with our then-super slow internet connection.  it was just barely clear that obama had actually won, and then the battery died.

the rest of the day was definitely the most homesick i’ve felt since arriving; knowing that everywhere in the US, people were celebrating something that was truly historic and inspiring.  for that night, the country was alive.   (sorry if this sounds cheesy; there is definitely the possibility that i’ve romanticized the whole thing since i was bummed i couldn’t be part of it.)  and i was in hubli.

the next day, i played at being an indian to share my happiness.  i purchased a box of sweets and then brought the sweets around to the various tenants of the apartments around my office.  i painstakingly explained in the phrase i had worked out and memorized in kannada: “yesterday the american people chose a new president.  his name is barack obama, and it makes me very happy,” and insisted each person take a sweet.

it’s interesting here, when you’re excited or celebrating something, its expected for YOU to bring sweets around to people.  a man’s son passed his exams, for example, so he came through my office (in the same building) to distribute sweets before moving on.  (this was months ago.)  in the same way, the birthday boy or girl is expected to buy all his guests dinner.  i’ve heard of this type of “reverse” (from my american perspective) birthday gift-giving in some other asian cultures as well…

so, a funny unanticipated side-effect of that little exercise in playing at being indian was that the people who took sweets from me then thought i spoke way more kannada than i actually do.  this led to some funny but confused moments, with my housekeeper in particular.

anyway, back to the post-election stories.

a day or two later, i stopped in the small shop not too far from my office.  they know me pretty well there.  taryn and i generally refer to them as “the curd man” because these people (its a family shop) sell the BEST curd (yogurt) in hubli.  homemade.  we also refer to them as “only fish,” which is the name of their rooftop restuarant, which seriously offers ONLY fish.  no veggie sides, nothing.

anyhow, i stopped in the store for something, and the main guy came out from behind the counter and started shaking my hand furiously.

“i must shake your hand,” he said, “because i heard that you paid 1800 rupees to send your vote to america.”  he went on to elaborate how proud it made him to know me, and that i was such a great and committed citizen who truly had a sense of civic duty.  i think he also mentioned obama (his information source, which was undoubtedly my coworker chachadi, who had taken me to the fedex place to send off the vote, had probably mentioned that as well).

i can’t really pretend that i was happy the people at the grocery shop were privy to financial details like what i paid to vote.  but at least he was impressed and pleased rather than disgusted i would waste my money in such a way…

(that’s a pretty large sum to shell out in india for the average suresh, ESPECIALLY for mailing something.)

the next real “election moment” i had came a fwe weeks later, when i attended an early morning session of “laughing yoga” with chachadi.  he’d recently started going to these meetings, and i was interested to check it out.  i had also hurt my ankle pretty badly and was hoping that perhaps this laughing yoga would prove to be a viable alternative to my morning jog.

no such luck.  the participants (i’ll call them “the  laughers” here, for fun) were all retired people who could somehow manage to derive physical activity from extremely basic and non-active yoga.  i will say about the laughing, though, that it was kinda fun in that the beginning laughs are forced and fake, but you’re quickly given over to laughing because you seem so ridiculous fake laughing for no reason.

after the session ended, the laughers were all very interested in their american guest, and a crowd quickly formed around me as chachadi did what he loves to do: talk to people about me.  most of the people spoke english, so i started fielding questions myself.

one guy asked me about the recent election, so i started gushing about obama and how happy i was.

“so,” he said, “you voted for change.”

until that moment i hadn’t realized how pervasive that slogan was.

but yeah, i guess i did…

rock on.