The call was from friend Nancy Gustaffson Radoff, an American lawyer, who could not even wait for Obama to settle down back in his chair, for her to share her thoughts of the moment. Within moments of the conversation began, she just broke down and wept like a baby across the trans-continental telephone line. “You just don’t know what it means to me, Girish”, she sobbed. A couple of days earlier, she had mailed a short note from Washington DC, where she had reached just to be near the place of history being made, though she had no intention to be at the inauguration itself among the teeming millions, due to her ill health. It explained what it meant to her.

She wrote, “I can hardly explain what it means to me to see this moment arrive. I grew up when the civil rights movement in America was at its peak, and remember the speeches and terrible deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. I never met in person anyone who was not my own white color until I was 11 years old, simply because the neighborhood where I lived was segregated by chance and opportunity to succeed, not because of any intentional plan. But I was with the struggling underclass emotionally all my life from what I saw in papers and on the TV. As a child I cried when I heard and saw news of the assassinations of those hopeful leaders of a new America. Now I was looking right at the site of the swearing in of the first black president of our country, something I surely didn’t expect to see any time soon, and seated next to me, not a white man but an Indian man. What awesome changes have happened in my life, and what a moment this is to be here in Washington”.

For Nancy and her millions of white American brethren it was a moment of personal catharsis, and as she said, through the sobs, the undoing of what they had done to their country in the last eight years. “For the last eight years I wore a black band on my wrist saying, ‘I didn’t vote for George Bush’ and now to see this happening in front of my eyes—-” she trailed off unable to control herself.

After the many moments of silence over the long distance line, interspersed by her attempts to get hold of herself, Nancy trailed off, “I hope we will again be looked upto by the world” or words to that effect, as it was difficult to remember the exact words, as one tried to control one’s emotions too.

After having overcome this deeply emotional interaction, when one looked at the whole process of the extra-ordinarily historic transformation, what struck one was how much India as a secular democracy is different from America. Both democracies pride on its constitution and traditions to keep religion out of statecraft. Yet the American Presidential oath taking is a quasi- religious affair, with President-elect making a highly publicized and tradition-bound visit to Church minutes before taking oath. The swearing in ceremony itself is replete with Christian religious symbolism, with a Reverend making a speech, apparently spiritual in nature. The President-elect takes oath with his hand on a bible, held by his wife. There are soul singers who sings very religious./spiritual song at the ceremony.

But look at what happens in India. For one we don’t have priests or mullahs or pastors praying at the oath taking ceremonies of any of our elected chief executives. We don’t have a Bhagavad Geeta or a bible or a quran being employed to take the oath. In fact there are no religious symbols on display during the entire exercise, either constitutionally mandated or tradition bound. One wonders what if the President-elect of USA ever is a non-believer or does not keep faith in Christianity. Simple answer is they have no hope in hell to get elected.

In India we have the oaths administered to Prime Ministers, Ministers and Chief Ministers which give room for both believers and non-believers, and there is no big deal made out of it. We have had several people take oath as Ministers and Chief Ministers by avowing in the name of “truth” and not “god”, which is perfectly acceptable in the Constitution. Some of the names in the recent times which come to mind are that of Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and other communist leaders, which is not a surprise at all. But we have had even non-communist leaders like Sharad Pawar, Jaipal Reddy, Mani Shankar Aiyar in recent times and yes, of course, even Pramod Mahajan, preferring the oath “in the name of truth” instead of god. And it has never affected their politics or their standing.

Obama tried to make up for this heavily Christian oriented ceremony by mentioning in his speech, how America is a “nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers”. The enormous challenge he faces is to take all of them along not just in his own country, but also across the world. One should remember that he has taken over a country which is deeply divided not only in religious and racial terms, but also in political terms. As we have seen in India a secular constitution alone does not ensure a society bereft of communal hatred. And in America too, an African American entering the White House will not end the racial division. It is a long haul ahead. American people like Nancy, however have done well by themselves ensuring that their country embark on the road to being a better nation and hopefully also ensure a better world. There is no more time to lose in this task, for Obama now.

It is not often that one sees hard boiled journalists, for whom cynicism is a part of their tool kit, dropping their guard and shedding tears while performing their job. And when Roland Martin, the African-American contributor of CNN did just that, it did not seem unusual for once. As the channel made the phenomenally historic announcement this morning (Indian time), that Barack Hussein Obama would be the next President of America, the newsroom full of veteran journalists assumed a somber air. As Martin choked recalling how just five years back, it was impossible to think of what had happened today, when Obama had dared to contest for the Illinois Senate seat, his co-analysts, also barely managed to raise their voice, even as they choked taking in the enormity of the occasion.

It was if all these journalists, veterans of many a Presidential election were jointly purging the sins of slavery and racism committed by their forefathers.

It was an extra-ordinary moment for all those who witnessed Obama taking centre stage at Chicago after he had got the concession call from his Republican rival, John McCain. What was most impressive, after the long and unprecedented bitterness witnessed in the campaign, was the grace and dignity displayed by McCain, at Phoenix, which forced even his worst detractors accept that he was a Gentleman. His supporters were however not upto him, unfortunately, as they booed and hissed, when he congratulated Obama.

The race is over. And some feel racism too, in America. But that would be taking things too far. As a friend, a white American lady, who has been fervently wishing this change for the last eight years, warned long distance over the phone soon after the historic declaration, “Look out for that white man with a gun”. Ominous as it may sound, and maybe totally out of place on a day like this, that is still the reality. Those boos and hisses in Phoenix were a sign of that.

It was however a sight to behold as all those gathered in various cities of America, late into the night, wept openly and cheered lunatically at the historic verdict. And thousands and thousands of them were white, as much as blacks and browns and what have you. It is said that this election was not about race, but about the need for change. In fact Obama all through the campaign took a lot of trouble to underplay the issue of race. But when he said today, “It was a long time in coming—–Change has come to America”, the “long time” he meant was not about George Bush’s eight years. It was the 232 years after the declaration of independence in 1776, that he has was obviously talking about. And when he meant change has come, it was about the people of America finally accepting a coloured man in the White House.

In the recent times, probably there is no other US President-elect who has raised so many expectations all over the world. And of course no other US Presidential candidate had so much support from people all over the world.

It proves two things—- one how fed up and disgusted the world, not just America was about the retiring President Bush. And second how much this bi-racial kid of a white Kansas Mother and a black Kenyan father has managed to convince the world about his ability.

And going by the way, the man himself reacted today to his victory—- serious, somber, reflective, no elation, no hysteria, no euphoria—– he knows more than anyone else the enormous burden of expectation he carries on his lean shoulders. And it certainly is not just of all those black Americans and all the blacks around the world, who are empathasing with him like they had never before to a man, but firstly to a nation which stands badly wounded and to a world which stands badly divided.

The cyber world is already abuzz with petitions and memorandums, reminding him of his campaign promises. One of them hoping to have a million messages from all over the world is planned to be displayed on a huge wall near the White House! It reminds him of Iraq, climate change, elimination of nuclear weapons, Guantanamo Bay, energy policy, electric cars——–!

No other US President has probably arrived at the White House with such a massive baggage of problems and demands to set it right, like Obama would be doing in January. But again no other black man had shown the kind of audacity he has to make it to that residence cum office.

As far as India is concerned, it is rather strange that the reaction is mixed. Just the other day, a leading newspaper asked its readers to SMS (text message), if they thought McCain will make a last minute rush past Obama. 48 percent thought he would, 46 said he won’t. A measure of how the right wingers in this country (who dominate the cyber world) also have got carried away. The same right wingers are now saying that Obama may not be the best thing for India, and not so strangely even the leftists have their ideological reservations. The latter feels that the hegemonic ambitions of the US administration don’t change with the change of a President. There are concerns over Obama’s stand on outsourcing affecting us, his stand on CTBT affecting the nuclear deal, his proactivism on Kashmir issue is another concern being expressed.

There are also contrary views— that India is too important now for him to take it for granted. All these concerns can be tackled later. What one needs to savour at this moment, as the world celebrates the phenomenal shift in America is that the country may finally have lived upto the dream of Martin Luther King, when he had said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”.