Former US President and one of world’s most remarkable leaders, Barack Obama has candidly spoken about his life in his latest book ‘A Promised Land’.
In his book, Obama has extensively talked about India, mentioning how he always held a special place for the country. He said that he soent his childhood years in Indonesia listening to the epic Hindu tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
“Maybe it was its(India) sheer size, with one-sixth of the world’s population, an estimated two thousand distinct ethnic groups, and more than seven hundred languages spoken,” Obama wrote in his book ‘A Promised Land’.
Even though he hadn’t visited India until his presidential days, he was always fascinated by India’s rich culure and heritage. He also mentioned that his Indian and Pakitani friends have also palyed an important role in strengthning his love for eastern culture.
“Maybe it was because I’d spent part of my childhood in Indonesia listening to the epic Hindu tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or because of my interest in eastern religions, or because of a group of Pakistani and Indian college friends who’d taught me to cook dahl and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies,” Obama has written.
“A Promised Land” is a memoir of Obama’s journey of his first term in the White House which kick-started with 2008 election campaign and and ended at Abbottabd’s raid that led to the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Meanwhile, Obama has also included description of Indian leaders from political spectrum in his book, ‘The Promised Land’. His comment on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has garnered mix reviews in the country. Talking about Sonia Gandhi, he wrote that she chose Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India as he posed no threat to Rahul Gandhi.
“… More than one political observer believed that she’d (Sonia Gandhi) had chosen Singh precisely because as an elderly Sikh with no national political base, he posed no threat to her forty-year-old son, Rahul, whom she was grooming to take over the Congress Party,” wrote Obama.
Talking about Sonia Gandhi’s appearance, Obama added, “a striking woman in her sixties, dressed in a traditional sari, with dark, probing eyes and a quiet, regal presence”.
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