Mumbai proud to host Obama

Hundreds of people gathered across the street from Mani Bhavan to catch a glimpse of President Obama's convoy in Mumbai, India.

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MUMBAI, India — A group of children sit on the hood of a police car, eagerly waiting for U.S. President Barack Obama’s motorcade to drive by.

“Ala, ala, ala,” (He’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming) a little boy shouts in Marathi, the local language spoken in Mumbai.

At another barricade, hundreds push and shove and jump up and down, trying to catch a glimpse of the president as he leaves Mani Bhavan, the museum where Mahatma Gandhi stayed when he visited Mumbai during India’s independence movement. Old men lean over their balcony railing; boys climb into trees; girls sit on top of shoulders — all holding their mobile phones out, ready to snap a photograph of Obama. When the president steps outside, the crowd goes wild, chanting, cheering and hooting away.

Obama and his Democratic Party have taken a beating this week at home, facing big losses in the mid-term elections. But a long flight and nine and a half time zones later, the president has received a warm welcome in Mumbai, where he begins his three-day trip to India and four-country tour of Asia.

“It’s a great honor for our country that a president of the United States is coming,” said 12-year-old Minal Chudasama, as she waited among the crowd outside the Gandhi museum. The young girl, speaking fast and with assertion, said she wants to one day study in the United States and return to India to help her country grow. “I want to be a big person like him,” she said.

Around Mumbai, people say they are proud of their country for being important enough to host a U.S. president and are excited to get a chance to see Obama, even if from hundreds of feet away.

Municipal worker Nitesh Kasare, wearing a bright orange vest and gloves, pauses from picking up trash on the street in front of the Gandhi museum and says he feels proud to be involved in such a big occasion.

“My family feels happy I’m cleaning for Obama,” he said smiling. He says he hopes the president helps India by providing jobs and food for the country’s poor.

Many waiting near the Gandhi museum say it’s significant to them that Obama is making a special stop to honor the country’s liberation hero. The visit holds personal meaning for 86-year-old Vimal Amladi. Both she and her deceased husband were active in India’s independence movement six decades ago, she said as she waited on her apartment’s terrace to watch the Obama convoy.

“It is exciting to see him coming,” Amladi said. “So many leaders have come here.”

The former freedom fighter, who wore a delicate white and pink sari, silver glasses and her white hair pulled back, said she remembers seeing Gandhi himself visit this home when she was young.

The reaction to Obama’s visit has not been entirely positive, and many Mumbaikars have complained about the timing of the trip and what they consider excessive security.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/101106/mumbai-proud-host-obama