January 20, 2021

Nov 7, 2020, 8:46am, PST: My phone beeps, indicating the arrival of a DM on WhatsApp. I glance down to read a one word message: “Congratulations!” I keyed in my reply: “Thanks! What a relief!” It had just been a few minutes since the networks had finally called the election for Joe Biden and this was the first message I got about it. It was from a friend in the Netherlands, who I hadn’t spoken to for at least eight months.

Jan 20, 2021, 8:55am, PST: Joe Biden has just been sworn in as the 46th President of the US and my phone dings again with the WhatsApp notification. It’s a message from my mother in India and it reads, simply, “Watching Biden’s oath.” I reply with the thumbs-up emoji and “So are we.”

The day has almost drawn to a close, but I don’t quite want to let it go. Can we linger in this moment for a just a bit longer? For four very long years we longed for this day, but feared it may never come. We were admonished that we were just being paranoid — “the system will prevail,” we were told. But as one norm after another was shredded and discarded with no attendant consequences, our paranoia took on a life of its own. Teams of scholars and historians ran wargames to prepare for doomsday possibilities, but admitted that they had deadlocked on several of the more gnarly ones. We anticipated Nov 3rd in equal parts with hope and dread, put on a brave face, and tried to prepare ourselves (not very successfully) for a repeat of the shock and disappointment of 2016. Then we watched with emotions that ran the gamut as the results slowly trickled in over almost four days. We cracked feeble jokes at the expense of Nevada’s Clark county and got very familiar with Georgia counties and their demographics. Turned out that this learning wouldn’t go to waste just yet — the Senate runoffs gave us another chance to revisit Fulton, Chatham, and Savannah, but that was still off in the future.

In the meantime, we waited tensely for the promised court challenges and wondered uneasily whether the Supreme Court would deliver another contested election to the lesser candidate. But that was the rub — this was not a contested election, at least not in the real sense of the word. As we realized with deepening dread, it actually does not matter if there is fraud or not — you just have to keep repeating it and people who prefer that version of reality will willingly go along. It wouldn’t be the first time that somebody chose to believe what they would like to be the truth rather than what is actually happening. If facts itself can become relative, then we are most definitely post-truth. As the courts (almost unanimously) dismissed the frivolous and meritless (and often, incompetently argued) cases, we began to relax a bit and wondered if a peaceful transition could yet happen?

But, the lies and distortions continued apace and indeed, seemed to gather more steam. In retrospect, it seems inevitable that a violent uprising was the only valve this building pressure was going to vent itself through and so perhaps, the events of Jan 6th should not be a surprise. Shocking and painful though it was to watch the Capitol be stormed (with seeming impunity by the overwhelmingly white mob), it may have been the jolt that we needed. There was no way (not that they didn’t try) to hide the ugliness of the MAGA movement behind the barely credible fig leaf of patriotism. Sometimes a near-death experience causes you to appreciate life just a bit more.

But, we survived all of that and today finally arrived. What did the day feel like? Twelve years ago, we gathered at a friend’s house (it’s hard to recall such a day, but it must have been pre-Covid) with swelling hearts and tears in our eyes to watch another inauguration. Obama’s candidacy and oratory were inspiring and his victory was historic. His first inauguration was a celebration, but if it had been McCain instead, we would have been saddened by the lost opportunity, but there would have been no sense of being in mortal peril. We felt a sense of victory, a promise of better things — even a self-congratulatory sense of satisfaction at having played a part in breaching one of the last barriers in public life. Watching Biden take the oath of office was a very different feeling — relief was part of it, but it seemed to be so much more. There was a sense of grim survival, that of emerging from a long, dark tunnel, punch-drunk and uncertain, but into the sunlight, nevertheless. The entire nation — perhaps the entire world (or at least a very large chunk of it) — had tugged free from the gravitational pull of the reality of our despair and was floating up, carefree for just a moment.

Covid restrictions created a very different feel for the day — no crowds, just one stunning visual after the other. Somehow that also fit the occasion — while there was joy aplenty at seeing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office — it was also somber. I had my most heartening epiphany — we were finally getting respite from the exhausting litany of denials — on climate change, systemic racism, demonization of Muslims, coddling of dictators, and even simple facts that were so plainly unfolding before our own very eyes. We don’t have to debate what is actually the problem, but can actually get on with trying to fix it. Not that we are going to succeed every time or even agree on what the solution should be, but after the last four years, just the prospect of a return to decency is enough to make us happy.

The sights and sounds of the day will stay with me for a long time. Perhaps none more so than watching the first ever Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman read her inaugural poem. Resplendent in a beautiful yellow coat and a smart red hat, she gave a rendition of such resonance and poise that she captured the mood perfectly in both words and performance. The juxtaposition of the 23 year old Gorman and the 78 year old Biden could not be more stark, but yet seemed perfectly in tune with the moment.

For that’s what we have come to expect from Joe Biden — he is transitional, not transformational. Which is exactly what we need in this moment: A transition from meanness to decency, from selfishness to selflessness, from apathy to caring, from incompetence to competence, from a disdain for expertise to a respect for hard-won knowledge, from nepotism to meritocracy, and indeed, a transition from carnage to hope. And lets not forget: from Barack Obama to Kamala Harris.

Joe Biden’s ascension to the presidency is not historic by most measures, except for the circumstances we find ourselves in. But, Kamala Harris taking the oath as VP was historic — in so many ways. It was easy to lose sight of that in the undercurrent of tension engendered by the events of January 6th, but there she stood with that thousand watt smile, embracing all the identities that make her a most uniquely American leader. Not so long ago, she was just another face in a sea of Democratic candidates, but after being chosen by Biden to be his running mate and especially after their victory, she seems to have grown in stature and has come to project a steely mix of being her own person while still in deference to Biden. Her Indian heritage does make it just a bit more special (for me) and especially, how it is front and center in her first name.

Of course it’s not all going to be roses and chocolates — governing any nation, let alone a severely divided one — is hard work and most of the time, compromise masquerades as success. Biden and Harris are politicians and they will break some promises and anger and disappoint us at some point or the other. But, today is a day to look beyond that. Today we notice the simple beauty of hundreds of flags filling the National mall where crowds would have thronged and we marvel at the fireworks that lit up the DC skies as Katy Perry’s voice rose to a crescendo. Amanda Gorman’s voice resonates in our ears and Biden’s speech — soaring when it needed to be, resolute when it had to be, but never shirking from hard truths— is a salve to our battered and bruised national psyche. John Legend’s smile at the end of his performance captures our mood and the four hundred lamps poignantly edging the Lincoln memorial reflecting pool tug at our hearts. Today, it seemed fitting that the cold blustery January day yielded to a bright sunny day just as Joe Biden stepped up to give his speech and today it seems like we once again have a President that we can be proud of.

We have kept the faith for four years. The cold reality of realpolitik and partisanship can wait for another day. Let today linger for just a bit longer.