1.
Even Bollywood could not stay away from using the Obama metaphor. In an upcoming Hindi film titled “Phas Gaye Re Obama” (“Obama Is in a Fix”), director Subhash Kapoor said he portrays a bunch of Obama-loving Indian gangsters struggling amid the economic recession. The comedy isn’t coming out until after the president’s visit.
Washington Post (There is a nice slide show of American presidents in India at the link.)
2. NDTV video link to President Obama’s town hall with Indian students at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. One of the students asks a pretty tough question about the midterms at 15:00.
3.
The president viewed a demonstration of a new system called “e-Panchayat”, a new effort to enable people in the more than 400 local districts across India to obtain and share information.
4. “What They Said: Obama’s Maiden India Visit” – IndiaRealTime (Wall Street Journal)
5. “President Obama’s visit to India, Day 1: The Obamas at Mani Bhavan “There were no human bombs then.” – Pundita (Pundita has several very good posts on the visit.)
Mr. Kamdar had a word of praise for the U.S. security personnel as well. “They weren’t at all obstructive. We could not make out who were the security and who were the staff. Everything went on so smoothly and naturally,” he said.
Obama does a pretty good job with the students, actually.
He looks comfortable and reasonably happy talking to them.
He is pretty much saying the same things he always says, but it is a pretty good performance.
I thought so, too.
Credit where credit is due. They are charming the Indian media and the Indian population, especially the First Lady. I don’t know if that goes toward substance, but stylistically, they are a hit.
– Madhu
Style matters – well, symbols do. And this time the symbols were used perfectly.