51st President of the USA

Picture credit: English Wikipedia - White House, North and South Side

The presidential speech after the swearing in ceremony of the 51^st President of the United States of America was being listened by billions of people on the Earth, as also Earth’s colonies on the Moon; and Mars and its two moon, Phobos and Deimos where just a small contingent of commando astronauts keeping a vigil on inter-planetary movement of contraband  was camping on that day. Presidential inauguration speech was also being listened by inhabitants of 1000s of sky cities roaming around the earth, and the underwater settlements in all the oceans of the world including habitations enveloped within artificial coverage on both the Antarctica. The population of Homo sapiens, the most intelligent animals on the planet earth, has reached almost 9 billion; it has stabilized though contracting in some countries and expanding in a few others. The 51^st President of the United States of America was the first President of the USA of Indian descent, and just turning 40, was the youngest one destined to sit in the Oval Office, where in 1960, John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, the 35^th President had occupied the Office when in his early 40s.

Mr. President’s grandfather who bore the same name, Uday Shankar, was born in a village Pachamba in July 1947, just one month before, India had regained independence from the British Raj that had lasted almost for 200 years.  To avoid confusion, we shall call him Udaya the elder. Pachamba was, then, a small village nestled near the coal mines of Karharbari. English Wikipedia once described this village in these words: “Pachamba is a very ancient location, near Giridih town, Jharkhand state, India. Presently, Pachamba is a part of Giridih town.” Thus, with the march of the omnipotent time, the secluded locality became part of a semi-urban mini conglomerate, Giridih town. The literal meaning of Pachamba is "panch" (five in Hindi) and "amba" (one of the name of the Mother Goddess of the Hindu), conveying in a sense, the place where the Five Devis reside. There are small temples of Goddesses on the boundary of the settlement. However, another explanation is that "Pachamba" means five ("pach") mangoes ("amba"), implying a cluster of five mango groves where the village grew after people may have moved here long back. Like most of villages across the world, no one exactly knows the meaning behind the names of many places. In this village, in the year 1898, Moti Ram, the patriarch of Bhadani family of Pachamba had moved from Karharbari, and settled with his 5 sons, Gaya Ram, Bulaki Ram, Bhairav Ram, Nathuni Ram and Chamaru Ram.

Bhadanis of Pachamba have come to Karharbari from a village called Doranda nestled within thick forests located few kilometers away from Kodarma – Jamua Road (Jharkhand). They are believed to have migrated to this place from Magadh regions before India’s First War of Independence (1857) when family branches due to disturbances resulting from disintegrating Mughal Empire and exploits of the East India Company which levied extortionist taxes on commodities moved to different places in search of livelihood with peace and decency and carrying on of trade and commerce. One line of Bhadanis which had stayed back in Gaya (Magadh region) almost wrote economic history, and one of its patriarchs Lala Gurusharan Lal Bhadani (1901-1955) who was a son of Rai Bahadur Ram Chand Ram Bhadani rose to become, in the year 1946, President of the Federation of Indian Chamber of commerce and Industry (FICCI). Another line of Bhadani family created a business empire (in Jharkhand region) which continued to be called Mica Kings for decades. 

Although Moti Ram was a business savvy person and a successful businessman, some of his progenies were rather modest in performance. Nathuni Ram’s eldest son was Jagadish Ram. For most of his working life, this gentleman had remained disinterested in business and commerce and was rather an economic disaster. However, Jesus had smiled at him in a different way. His wife, Horil Devi’s first born was Hari Ram, who grew to be a brilliant child and left a mark on the family history. He became a University topper from Science College, Patna in 1942. He repeated the feat of being a topper again during his Master’s course in the year 1944. The years were rolling by fast. 1947 was a tumultuous time for the world. World War II, in which around 75 millions military personnel and civilians are reported to have died, had concluded in August 1945 leaving behind a trail of destruction. Pachamba village was more or less peaceful. As mentioned, in the month of July 1947, just one month before India regained its freedom from the British Raj, in the sprawling village style “mansion” which Moti Ram had bequeathed to his 2 youngest sons, Nathuni Ram and Chamru Ram, Udaya Shankar, the grandfather of the 51^st President of the United States of America was born to Panna Tarway, daughter-in-law of Jagdish Ram and wife of Hari Ram.

© Haripanna Associates, Ranchi (Jharkhand, India)

India and Americas

The subcontinent of India and its people have deep roots in the human history. The Indian subcontinent once was a large mass of the known world comprising Asia, Africa and Europe. Both the Americas and the Australia were not known to the human societies that flourished in Asia, Africa and Europe. Hardly 600 years before both the American continents and Australia were not known to the people who had been inhabiting parts of Asia, Africa and Europe since the birth of human civilization. In these parts of the earth, civilizations have risen and vanished, empires have taken shape and crystallized and then disintegrated. Millennia have rolled over in these known worlds. 

Nevertheless, it shall be in order to state a little about both the Americas, located on the "other side" of the globe. When the westerners set foot on the soil of the Americas, these continents were also having flourishing civilizations and human habitations. These were noteworthy for the heights achieved by them. The Mayan cities and the Aztec settlements were having grandeur and glamour of   an unprecedented scale. The land looked virgin and mostly it was virgin. The people were happy with old heritage. In these unique settlements, unique practices were in vogue.

When the westerners set foot on the shores of the Americas, none in the known world may have imagined in their wildest of the wild dreams that a land of opportunities and unprecedented economic might shall emerge in the form of the United States of America. The history was to be created in the form of a nation state that comprised many elements of human beings from across the world. It was certainly a unique creation of human civilization. All other civilizations have emerged from the core of one ethnic group, one social group of people of similar cultural and racial background. Here in the United States of America a different thing was to happen. Persons of various nationalities, civilizations, ethnic racial and linguistic groups were to merge to create a sovereign nation unparalleled in the human history.

In this background, the Indian Americans have excelled in a variety of vocations and fields in the USA, the land of freedom, free enterprises and opportunities. These fields include Noble Prize winners; deans, presidents, professors in academic institutions and scholars; military; mathematicians, scientists and technologists; medical professions; musicians; actors and actresses including adult acting; arts and entertainment; fashion designers; in business and industry as founders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, as business executives; in media and literature; elected officials and civil servants; religion, sports and many other fields. Obviously, the Indian Diaspora in the USA has not only silently enjoyed of being in the USA but has pro-actively contributed to its making in all possible ways. 
Indian immigrants in the USA have contributed to the sum total of the social, cultural and economical aggregate that is known as the USA. Over last centuries since the first immigrants set foot on the soil of the USA, several generations of immigrants have come to the USA. During 20^th century, large wave of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent arrived in the USA. And, many of them excelled in many fields. Some of them really excelled and put a mark on the USA in their chosen fields. They included personas like Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley, Bobby Jindal, Raj Patel, Rajiv Shah, Vivek Kundra, Narayana Kocherlakota, Kalpana Chawla, Pranav Mistry, Har Gobind Khorana, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Sunita Williams, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, and countless others who, over a period of time, has become household names in India and very well known in the USA.

© Haripanna Associates, Ranchi (Jharkhand, India)