Dreams from My Father

I glanced at the clock squinting my eyes. Almost 3 in the morning. I had been reading the book in the dim, yellow bedroom light since 2230 and yet I wanted to go on. He kept me glued to his past, his virtues, his humility, his obstacles, his struggles and his origins. He who was born to a colored and a Caucasian; an obvious black, Kenyan father and an American mother in a time in which coloreds were discriminated beyond our belief. And yet he stood to be brown amongst the whites, with all his denials, confusions, the victimizations and with the irony that he was neither black nor white, he by passed all obstacles with grace and he is who he is today. Barack. Oh yes, Barack Obama.

 

He was the revolutionary who spoke with eloquence, defeating the to-be first woman president of the USA. He walks on to stage and waves at his supporters with grace and flair. Not a single person could doubt the determination and humility in his eyes. In the face of dirty politics, rumors and the prejudice that still exists among the whites and in spite of having been shuffled between continents; Hawaii and Indonesia and back, in the shadow of a father who was just a volatile figure in the stories of his grandparents he still became The Obama. It just amazes me.

 

How could a mere person succeed that far with all those obstacles that were made to pull him down? All that discrimination that America saw in the 60’s and 70’s and all that labeling and stereotyping and all, how could one not give up? With the lack of a father figure to teach him virtues and the lessons about the survival of the fittest and without that masculine protection that everyone needs, how could he have become such a person?

 

It kept me wondering all through the night and the next day and the next. Most of us aren’t rich, white, or famous. Insignificant are we in this vast world where possibilities are endless. But this, very brown, determined, confident man has proved to me and to the rest of the world that one can be what one chooses to be. As I’ve come to know that when you put your dreams, your mind and your efforts into something, the whole world conspires to help u achieve it.

‘Dreams from my father’ is worth the read. It will transform you. Period.