Long Walks On Leafy Streets

5/14/2016 Kansas Ave NE, Washington, DC.
Today the sun finally broke out, after a couple of weeks of gloomy wet weather. I finally got some time to write. The last couple of weeks since the end of final exams I have been trying to focus on my research and so other things have been put on the back burner. I hope to continue that throughout the summer. I haven’t had any time for research since just before Prashant was born. It is difficult to work on research if you don’t have extended periods of time, perhaps a few hours at a stretch, on a regular basis.

At least for me that is how it is. In 1984 I was trying to get into Vivekananda College, Chennai after finishing high school and I had to go through an interview. I don’t remember the name of the Professor who interviewed me, he was a younger member of the math faculty there and had done his graduate studies in London, but I do remember the question he asked: Construct a unit vector in a given direction.
After thinking about it a bit I finally came out with an answer. He might have given me a hint or something. To this day I cannot believe that I couldn’t answer it right away. Maybe I was too nervous. I also remember him telling my father that I will be fine if I just concentrated more. I must say, he really hit the nail on its head. It would not be an exaggeration to say that concentrating has been a problem for me all my life and it continues to hobble my progress even now.

Although I think I am a resilient person who can persevere on a task long after the time to quit has come and gone, I have always found it difficult to focus my entire attention on something for a long period of time. I think over the years I have gotten better at it. Meditation and hiking have certainly helped. Learning about mindfulness from Thich Nhat Hanh and his followers has also helped. But the past one year has really accelerated that process. Taking care of Prashant has demanded that I focus on him and only him because any small error resulting from negligence and lack of attention means his life might be endangered. Going on less sleep or discontinuous sleep and dealing with the stress of raising a baby as well as taking care of elderly parents has forced me to learn to be calm even when things are not going well. In the past few months I have been running longer and longer distances in preparation for the Marine Corps marathon in October --this will be my first one and I am so glad I got in through the lottery! – that I am running because I want to celebrate my half-century in style. Running long distance needs a certain calmness in mind as well, and in turn it trains the mind to be calmer.

One person who has been a sort of role model for me lately, in turns of maintaining equanimity at all times, is President Obama. I am an unabashed fan of his, as Nicole would tell you, and so I was very excited to learn that he would be the speaker for Howard’s graduation. There was much anticipation on campus and a flurry of emails about the preparations and, of most interest to me, the tickets. I had decided against wearing a gown and going on the procession because I wanted to sit with Nicole. As it turned out the graduation was on saturday the 6th, the day before Mother’s day and her mom was coming the same time as it started, so I might have as well gone on the procession and I wish I did because I would have gotten a much better view. In fact without the gown it was not even clear to me that I would get a ticket. But I am happy to report that I did get it finally –just a couple of days before the event – and I gave the extra ticket to my good friend Manuel.

The instructions were that on Saturday morning everyone had to be in their seats by 8.30 even though the event started at 10. I thought I had a good chance of getting a good seat if I got there by 7.30. Prashant is usually up around 5 am and I got up with him. We watched a bit of PBS. They played “It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” He always enjoys music and sometimes starts moving and waving as if he were dancing. I left home at 6.30 and biked down Kansas Ave all the way to Georgia Ave and then down Georgia to campus. I don’t know if it was getting up early and enjoying the brisk morning air or the excitement generated by the event but I felt so euphoric while biking that I sang “A beautiful day in the neighborhood” loudly, to myself.

On Georgia Ave the traffic is usually chaotic. Today it was downright crazy, although I would call it a happy kind of crazy. I was glad not to be driving, because nearer to campus the traffic was barely moving. I enjoyed weaving through the stopped cars and not having to worry about getting run over, for a change. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, indeed in an exuberant mood. I met Manuel and we had hot drinks and snacks before leaving on our separate ways because his ticket was for the big screen showing inside Burr gymnasium. Maybe I should have told them explicitly that I was not going on the procession. Anyways, I got through security quickly and made into the main yard. As I was entering I saw Vernon Jordan also go in ahead of me. I later wondered if there was some kind of problem between him and the rest of the Howard top brass because I would have expected him to be with them. After all, he was the one designated to bestow the honorary Doctor of Sciences degree on Obama.

As expected the yard was packed already and I went through several rows towards the front looking for empty seats and facing hostile stares when I enquired, “Is that seat taken?” I finally sat down on one of the chairs towards the back and settled down. I am glad I sat there rather than on the bleachers. It was pleasant having my feet on the green grass and leaning back in the chair. I went through the program to see if any of the students who were in my class and were graduating managed to clear everything and get their names into it. The last two weeks of a semester are always the most difficult. All the studying seems to happen then. It is especially challenging when you have to deal with prospective graduates, in particular those students who have been putting off finishing their math requirements because they are intimidated by it (or simply never cared to work on their math) and had put them off until the last minute. Anyway all is well that ends well and I can say with a clear conscience that all of them deserved to graduate and I was happy to see their names in the program. This is one day they will remember all their lives and I am glad I was not the one standing between them and their degree.

I tried to catch up on my sleep a bit but it was hard to do because of all the noise and excitement around me. People were dressed very well. Many of the Africans were in their traditional dresses and the African Americans and the Caribbeans were in nice suits. There were also many white and Asian students and faculty in the crowd, including several from the Middle East. Pride and Joy were evident in everyone’s faces, especially the parents. This was a day both African-Americans and Africans at Howard could be proud of. Of course, white Americans should be proud of Obama too, as he is partly white. Finally Muslims can feel proud of the fact that a man with a Muslim middle name is President of the US. On top of the buildings around the yard one could see security personnel take up their positions and scan the scene with humongous binoculars.

I will not say much about the event itself because you can watch the video or read about it on CSPAN, WHUT or in the newspapers. I will instead write about my opinion of it and my feelings about it. It was great to see the students and faculty march down in their regalia proudly with their faces beaming. The speeches by the officials were heartfelt, especially our President Wayne Frederick whom I admire. It could have been a bit shorter but they probably did the best they could to keep it short. We were all, of course, waiting for Obama to speak and when he did rise up to get his honorary degree and then to speak the crowd erupted. I was thrilled to make out his person on the stage although I had to look closely because of the distance. I have seen him before in rallies. I had volunteered for both of his election campaigns. But it was a special feeling to see him in the yard that I walk through almost every working day. It left me with a good feeling about working at Howard and will make me work even harder to serve this great institution, in spite of all the problems that we have faced and continue to face.

His speech did not disappoint. I felt that there were some grand themes to it, and he made his points with humor and clarity. He had some “Mandela moments” when he said things that may not have been what the crowd wanted to hear. The crowd was very silent, for example, when he said “I am going to say something controversial….race relations have improved since I graduated” or when he said “Yes, you have to care about that middle aged white guy who feels left behind as well…” I do believe, though, that by the end of the speech everyone understood the truth of those statements and appreciated what he said. I was glad he mentioned climate change as one of the big problems the graduates would face, although I understand that his speech had to be tailored to the issues of specific concern to African-Americans.

I liked how he laid out his vision for what kind of activism the younger generation of African-Americans would need to engage in. I am a big fan of Bernie Sanders and his call for a revolution. But I am more inclined towards building on what we have and changing things gradually, as Obama advocated in his speech. We must not forget that Obama himself has brought about a revolution in the US, or rather, accelerated the changes that we were going through. But when change is too drastic there is a risk that it would lead to chaos and widespread disruption. I believe it is better to involve all parties concerned and bring about change in a harmonious way. It is true that some people might be intransigent and too opposed to the change. But that does not mean that they should be ignored or sidelined, because there are large masses of people who are part of that opposition. The big question one has to ask oneself is, “What do you have to offer, after we get rid of what we have?” To answer that question I would like to bring your attention to what the young man from the movie “Battle for Turkey Creek” did, the one I talked about in the previous post. He not only opposed and successfully blocked the development of the land around the creek, he also organized the community to develop it as a recreational waterway.

Directory Previous