Our laying out the red carpet to greet an American President not so hot on his own turf has to be the most slavish display of hospitality ever. We thought we were subservient and this, like pink gins in the afternoon and coffee after dinner, was an old Raj hangover from which generations post Independence had not got over. But what we are seeing in the run-up to Air Force One bringing Obama plus 3,000 today is not just the city bending over backward to welcome a visiting head of state, but well, embarrassingly also forward. And that kind of hurts. Not just because it comes at a time when we want to be by ourselves, for Diwali is meant to be celebrated with family and friends, and certainly not with an unwelcome guest who plays spoilsport at the party. Or because we find parts of the city, yes - aamchi Mumbai, out of bounds for our festive weekend and ourselves declared persona non grata at Gateway of India for the nightly fireworks.
That too, perhaps with a stiff upper lip - another English hand-me-down to the long-suffering Indian, we might have accepted in silence. After all, a guest is a guest, and we are known to be a tolerant people. If we can grit the teeth and bear a 50-car cavalcade holding up peak hour traffic as it rushes President Pratibha Patil to Raj Bhavan for dinner, then we can clench the fists as the Obama juggernaut hurtles through silent and deserted roads with flashing lights and wailing sirens. No, what has caused the iron to enter our soul is this servile deference of a city getting dressed up and having nowhere to go because its date for the weekend is a man who will hop from one bullet-proofed and sanitised venue to another without so much as a glance at the preparations that have gone into making him feel important.
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