30 April, 2017 marks hundred days of Donald Trump as President of USA. Personally, I am a tad upset that United States has to see this day. But then who am I to complain? Even President Donald Trump himself isn’t happy that he is the President of USA. A few days back in an interview to Reuters he said he didn’t expect Presidency to be so hard. This is what he said:
I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.
– US President Donald Trump
So, is Donald Trump going back to being just rich? We don’t know. But his elevation to the helm of USA has been a huge personal blow. So much so that USA is no longer my dream country. It is no longer a country I so desperately want to go to.
Why USA had become my dream country overnight
My parents have always been proud of my acting skills. Whenever our relatives came home my parents would ask me to enact scenes from popular Bollywood movies. And in between Gabbar Singh’s “woh kitne aadmi they?” and enactment of Amitabh Bachchan’s death in the climax scene from the same movie ‘Sholay’ I would be asked, “So, what is your dream?”
My mother had always wanted me to be a doctor and my father wanted me to join the Indian Army. Being the sentimental fool that I was, I wanted to make both of them happy by joining the Indian Army as a doctor. So, my answer to this question was always, “I want to study in Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and become a doctor in the Indian Army.”
One fine day, my answer to the above question changed forever.
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My eighth standard classmate Ikroop Singh had just watched the first episode of ‘Baywatch’ and during lunch break just wouldn’t stop talking about it.
“Does the camera really zoom in on the woman’s chest?” I asked in disbelief.
“Boobs. Not chest,” Ikroop smiled.
“Yes, boobs,” I sheepishly agreed.
“And the women run in slow motion too!” Ikroop chipped in again.
“Wow! I so want to watch ‘Baywatch’ now.” I meant every word.
That’s when Ikroop Singh said something which changed my dream for ever, and has had a far-reaching effect on my life ever since.
“Baywatch is set in United States. In USA, you can watch boobs whenever you want,” he said with a grin.
“Really? I want to live in USA!” I exclaimed.
“It is possible, you know? Just get your green card. Simple.” He said and walked away.
Since that day, if anybody asked for my dream, I would swell up my chest, raise my chin high, spread my arms and rest them on my hips and proudly announce to the world, “I want to own a green card.”
Nobody asked me why I wanted to be a green card holder, but I did get a lot of claps and shouts of ‘Bravo!’
Many years later, I would come to know that green card is never green but that’s beside the point.
It has been 30+ years since this incident and I have seen my share of boobs (if I double count them it is even more!) but I no longer want to be a green card holder.
My love for the United States didn’t waver when in 2011 American Financial Services company Standard & Poor’s downgraded United States top-tier credit rating from AAA to AA-Plus. I agree that the rating does sound like battery size and the name of the rater is prone to manipulation as ‘Poor Standards’ or ‘Standard’s Poor’ but this didn’t affect my love for the country.
I didn’t lose hope when I came to know that the USA owed China more than a trillion dollars in loan. They will pay back, I thought and moved on.
I kept my faith even when they went from one war to another – Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Star Trek wars. In fact, I didn’t even mind when Americans were pompous enough to live telecast one of their wars on Television in six parts – remember, the war led by General James T Kirk?
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When USA disappointed itself
My USA aspirations were first dented 100 days ago when Donald Trump became the President of USA.
Sometime back ex-President of United States Bill Clinton, who left the White House with a bit of a stain on his character and a bigger stain on an intern’s skirt had said: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” By the time President Donald Trump finishes his term Clinton would have changed it to “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is left with America.”
On April 30, 2017 Donald Trump marks 100 days as President of USA, and let me assure you it hasn’t been pretty watching him from outside of USA. But the folks in United States don’t seem to have any issue with him – they seem to be fine as-long-as Donald Trump supplies joke material for late-night comedy shows on television.
Maybe that is why the political commentators in USA don’t want Trump to go, because then they must work harder for their jokes.
In fact, I won’t be surprised if on his 100th day as the President of USA Donald Trump gets onto the podium, thumps his fist on the podium and claims that his first 100 days as the President of USA had more days than Barack Obama’s first 100 days as President.
So, here’s to Donald Trump’s 100 days – which are more ‘bigly’ than any American President’s first 100 days ever!
Dear Americans, today my prayers are with you. God bless America!
