‘Every Word Obama Spoke in Town Hall Was Gospel’, Writes Gurmehar

President Obama is everything one imagines him to be and more, wrote activist Gurmehar Kaur after the town hall.

File photo of Barack Obama from the town hall in Delhi.

(Photo: PTI)

I have never doubted myself or reasons for doing the activism I do despite waking up to, if not straight-up hateful, then patronising tweets every day. Receiving an invitation to the Obama Foundation town hall was a sign and a confirmation that if your heart is in the right place, no matter how large the number of people opposing you is, you will find your ground eventually.

As someone who is still tiptoeing into adulthood, wide-eyed with dreams and a hope for the future that is considered too idealistic for the world to fathom, I understood from the beginning that this was a great opportunity to learn not just from the Former President of the United States, but from every single person in the room who has been a change-maker in their field working towards the same idealistic too-good-to-be-true future that I’ve always dreamed of.

I went to the event with an open mind just waiting to soak up all the knowledge that there was to offer.

The day couldn't have been brighter, the sun shone the right amount, the wind blew in the right direction, and Nehru Memorial had never looked as pristine or maybe it was just my excitement.

I walked through the gardens towards the museum building where some of the youngest and most influential change-makers stood, waiting for the doors to open up, with almost, if not more, the same amount of excitement and sped up heartbeats.

President Obama was everything one imagines him to be and more.

He walked on to the stage and instantly the air in the room changed – there he was, one of most loved Presidents, one of the greatest world powers, and yet, with his relaxed attitude and great sense of humour, he put the whole room at ease instantly.

I held my breath as he spoke, and with every word, he evoked hope in us and I understood why his campaign was surrounded around the same word.

Only a few metres away from us, he stood on the podium and spoke about Obama Foundation, and his own vision for the world and its emerging young leaders.

There are all sorts of things that I care about. All sorts of specific issues that I am going to continue to work on. I plan to lend my voice to, to focus the rest of my career on. I will be out there advocating on behalf of doing something about climate change and doing something about inequality and making sure that women are getting the same opportunities as men and fighting against forces of discrimination and racism. 

Barack Obama

The applause to his address was assuring, it was comforting to know that 279 leaders along with him had a similar vision and tools to execute it.

Post the town hall, a friend asked me what my takeaways were from the the session. It was not an easy question to answer because as someone who is trying to find footing in the field, every word that was spoken in the auditorium was gospel, so much so that once back I went through the recorded live stream of the event all over again.

What certainly stood out for me was his take on what leadership or being a leader means. The question of whether I would be joining politics in the future has been thrown at me more times than I could count and it is definitely a choice that I will soon have to make.

In India, ‘leader’ is synonymous to ‘politician’ and Barack Obama had something to say that resonated with me and with many in the crowd:

You can be a full-time activist to bring about change, you can primarily be a writer...you can be an extrovert and want to run for office…the key is to find what the right is for you...if each of us are finding the way, even of small measures of courage, then India will be better and the world will be better.

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