GlocalNet

Yesterday was super busy - today will be as well.  It’s early and I’ve been up packing getting ready for meetings, then to sweep back in, grab my bags and head home.  I’m going to write more on this but I went to a caste reconciliation meeting that was just awesome - I’ll have pictures and descriptions coming shortly.  Most of the day after that I met with leaders of Parliament, parties, etc.,  BUT my favorite visit of all was visiting with the famous woman journalist Mrs. KP Bhanumathy.  She’s now in her 90’s and just wrote a book.  I’m going to get it.  She speaks of interviewing the Icon’s of the 20th century.  She knew Gandhi and Nehru very well.  She told me because she was western educated she wasn’t impressed with a man with a stick and half naked - but as she got older and read she came to admire him after he was gone.  She said Indira Gandhi could lead because “she was one tough lady”.  She was friends with Jacqueline Kennedy and interviewed her as well - as well as President Kennedy.  The list goes on Che Guevara, and even Ho Chi Minh.  As someone who works in Vietnam, I asked her a lot about him - she said he was a quiet, warm man.  To be an Indian lady and meet everyone she did and write was truly incredible - now in her 90’s the wealth of experiences is incredible.  I asked her how she felt about the future of India - “Gloomy - we now have a collective mediocrity - the parties all vie for power and there is no direction, no single vision to take us anywhere.”  I also asked her who does she see on the scene that would be great world leaders - she told me none.  I asked her about Obama, she said he’s a nice man but is wavering and not sure he knows what to do yet but was hopeful.  I asked her what she is proudest of,  “Our past.”  To have been there and seen Gandhi and the nation come together and people pulling forward in one direction was truly something incredible.  So, I leave for more meetings, but my meetings in India have been incredible.  I have several flip camera interviews I’ll post later this week and next – I have learned a lot and have grown a lot.