Obama's Inauguration - The Party is OVER

He is now the 44th President, Change is here, Yes We Can is now Yes We Did. The party is over, it's time to get to work and make true of the promises made. The task is daunting, the momentum is there and the people are inspired. Let's start by picking up the trash - literally and figuratively.

(The street outside my apartment in the aftermath)

Obama's Inauguration - 1 day to go

The stage is set, everything's in place. We (A and I) went for a walk on the National Mall today evening. There was clear electricity in the air - you could almost touch it. All news channels from all corners of the country and abroad have set up their camps on the mall. Walking on the mall gives a feeling of being under a mega wedding pandal or at a sarvajanik Ganeshotsav pandal (I know it's a silly analogy, but that's exactly what I felt tonight).

Inauguration of Barack Obama - 01192009

Obama's Inauguration - 2 days to go

January 18th 2009, two days to go before the big day. The city is now a fortress, streets are closing, humvees on every other street corner, air force planes and choppers are hovering at regular intervals. Security forces are everywhere - cars, motorcycles, horses, segways, bikes, on foot and in the sky.

Today, the stars descended at the National Mall for HBO's Concert of one - Beyonce, Denzel Washington, Samuel Jackson, Tiger Woods, Tom Hanks, Shakira, Bruce Springsten, U2, Garth Brooks, Steve Carrell, Jamie Foxx, Laura Linney, Kal Penn, George Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Sheryl Crow and many many more. There was a sea of hon the grounds and electricity in the air. The President Elect with his family and the VP Elect with his family were present at this celebration. It was a great day to be at the National Mall.

More photos here:

The Concert of One

Obama's Inauguration - 5 days to go

I work as the Diversity & Inclusion lead for my office. What does that mean you might ask? Well, Deloitte as a firm is huge on Diversity and Inclusion (as are most firms these days). Given the size of the organization, each office has a lead who is responsible to be the champion in ensuring that the firm-wide message is communicated to all the employees and that no person ever feels "left out" because of his race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, living situation etc. This is a role which demands creativity and calls for finding innovative ways to celebrate the differences amongst all of us. Anyway, so as a part of this, we (me along with some of my colleagues who sit on the Diversity Council) are planning to create a three-five minutes video on the evolution of the Black population in this country - from slavery to Presidency. This video will then be shown at our next office wide staff meeting (February 6th). I guess, I have some work cut out for me on 1/20 then - must capture many relevant photos and videos. Thinking of interviewing random people on the streets and capturing their reactions. Any other ideas?

Obama's Inauguration - 6 days to go

Next Tuesday, in 6 days, America will witness the swearing in of it's first Black President. The entire city of Washington is buzzing with a frenzy of activities - the kind of activity you experience in the days preceding a wedding in your immediate family. The entire District feels like one big family preparing and getting ready for this event. Even the roadside bums are part of the buzz. I will be posting each day a bit of my experiences of these once in a lifetime event.

I am currently working on an engagement for the Child and Family Services Agency for the Government of the District of Columbia. It is one of the mission critical agencies for any State or Federal Government since it deals with Child Protection Services (protecting children against abuse and neglect). As a result of the unprecedented crowds that are expected over the 1/17:1/21 period, the agency along with the rest of the Government organizations is preparing for the worst. Disaster recovery simulations are taking place across all organizations, a chain of command and emergency communication channels are being established. For CFSA, their on the field staff are Social Workers employed to conduct investigations and attend to calls of child abuse or neglect calls received by the child abuse hotline. Over the inaugural weekend, the US Secret Service has issued myriad street closures which will hamper the social workers from reaching the locations where the alleged event has occurred. The agency is taking unprecedented measures to allow the workers to get to these children and take appropriate actions such as: posting social workers in the most vulnerable of the neighborhoods, providing wireless access to it's information systems, PDAs etc. Getting to experience this and being a part of these preparations (even though it's a tiny tiny tiny portion of it) gives me a feeling of being a "part" of it. Going back to the immediate family wedding analogy- remember when you were ten and your uncle was getting married and you were asked to bring a basket of flowers from one room to the other, you felt like that was the most important task EVER and that it could play a huge role in making or breaking the event? Yeah, it's that feeling all over again.

Here are two pictures I managed to take at a Metro station, corporate America is cashing in on the "change" matra. What's IKEA furniture got to do with "Change"? Huh!

If you want detailed information of the inaugural weekend, this is the best place: Washington Post's Inaguration Central. More tomorrow.