…I’m going to give you the highlights of what Kal Penn said about his favorite contender for the potentially-soon-to-be-not-White House.

Penn got personal, as he speeched at us with tales of his grandfather’s involvement in the struggle for India’s freedom and a more recent influential event in his life— a phone call he received from a good friend, from Texas, asking for advice. This friend was struggling to finance his education, and he had been offered a job with Satan with Haliburton, driving trucks through Iraq for $90,000 a year. It was a tempting, and obviously perilous offer for someone making minimum wage. Penn was deeply affected by the awful situation his friend was in and that’s one of the reasons why he’s taking the time to get involved and motivate people across the country to support Obama; he sincerely believes his man has a plan.

Anna at Sepia Mutiny reports from an event where Kal Penn stumped for Obama. Also see this site that Penn mentioned during the Q&A. And this. And especially this, which reports that Penn said that “South Asian Americans could make Obama President.”

For my part, aware of Penn’s endorsement, I’ve tried to show my support for Obama by first watching the Harold and Kumar movies. And now, having long carried in my head Jonathan Raban’s recommendations, I’ve started reading Dreams From My Father. In a few days, I leave for Denver.

obama-kal-penn-jonathan-raban

Graduating from St Xavier’s College in the late eighties was particularly traumatic for my generation. The tentacles of old world political idealism were still firmly curled around our necks, but we could easily see the shining spectre of globalised India waiting to explode.

There were two small factories of political idealism within the college. One was the Center, where the sixties remained eternal; Lennon could be worshiped with agarbattis, Che Guevara was in (as he remains, at least embossed on trendy T-shirts), and (paradoxically), Marx and Gandhi were gods.

The other was the League, which was full of hands-on, heart-on-your-sleeve, straightforward ‘do goodness’. They were ‘social workers’, as opposed to being ‘activists’. The Center loyalists were full of disdain for the League wallahs, dismissing them as pedestrian ideologues, hole-diggers (in reference to their persistent penchant for digging wells in villages) and the worst epithet of all, enemies of class struggle, which in real terms for many of us centerpedes (as we were called) was limited to fighting for rights of college canteen workers.

India’s Independence Day is just around the corner. There will be a lot of familiar stock-taking of achievements and failures, but this piece by Rahul Srivastava is a bit different, quickly presenting the divisions of a moment, already turning obsolete, and then matter-of-factly describing two “misfits.” As a reader, you want to get up and go in search of what is missing.

(Thanks, Naresh)

Cristiane’s bicycle kick goal brought tears to my eyes. So amazing, so perfect - she was surrounded by defenders and still got a controlling touch and just sent it over her own body and into the net. I was rooting for Nigeria, but I’m a fan of the beautiful game, and I don’t know what’s more gorgeous & inspirational than a goal like that. (Note the Nigerian player who nearly takes Cristiane’s foot in her face!)

My friend Jennifer Doyle has a blog “temporarily devoted” to women’s soccer in Beijing. It’s called From a Left Wing and is particularly attentive to the coverage of the non-US teams. Also check out this video about which Jennifer writes:

I don’t often share viral videos on this blog, but: Two girls (a midfielder & a winger) from Santa Monica High School Women’s Soccer Team show their love for LA monument Randy’s Donut. (Note the last line: “Let’s see Mia Hamm do that!”)