As cool as Obama

Obama displayed unimaginable amounts of savoir-faire during the run-up to the Osama killing. Consider this: not only did he appear relaxed at the White House dinner a day before Operation Geronimo, but his demolition of “The Donald” with wit and humour had the audience in splits.

Mind you, he did this while he was aware that the next few days were going to be some of the most challenging not only in his own career but in world history.

If that were not enough to earn him the “No-Drama Obama” title, we are told that he also played a round of golf even as US Seals were drawing close to their target. (The only concession he made was to cut short his game from 18 holes to nine!)

Then, he walked (the word “strode” suggests itself) to the Situation Room and watched in real time as his men took Osama down.

Cool or what?

Recently another instance of cool — or perhaps the more grown-up form of it, stoicism — caught my attention as I watched victims of Japan’s triple disaster display grace, courage and endurance as they stood in queues or shelters or pointed out the wreckage of their homes.

For a long time now I have been fascinated by the philosophy of Stoicism founded in Athens in the 3rd century BC, which propounds self-control and fortitude so that one is free from negative emotions like anger, fear, jealousy and hate, and can be “sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy”, as one of its proponents, Epictetus, said.

It is the general view that as Indians we are a nation of drama queens. Our parliamentarians scream at each other, our TV anchors hector. Try and board a train and you will witness scenes of high dudgeon and heightened emotion. We wail at funerals, flagellate ourselves, argue with each other, beat our breasts.

But in fact this tendency to be overwrought belongs to its middle classes; India’s unwashed multitudes display remarkable amounts of fortitude and resilience as they go about their daily lives in the face of unimaginable challenges.

So who amongst its garrulous, over-emotional middle classes has displayed degrees of fortitude and unflappability that have caught our attention in public life?

In sports is there any doubt that M S Dhoni, our very own Captain Cool, displayed such phlegmatic detachment and dispassion when he stepped up to the crease in those last crucial minutes of the World Cup that he would do the ancient Stoics proud?

In politics my vote goes to the unflappable P Chidambaram who, when he faced an errant slipper flung at him at a press conference during his present tenure as home minister, not so much ducked as swayed gently to the side. (Minutes later he was seen requesting security staff to be gentle with his assailant.)

And in Bollywood it’s Abhishek Bachchan who has demonstrated such dignified calm and good humour while facing his run of bad luck at the box office that I feel it’s his insouciance that has changed his fortunes and delivered him a hit.

Yet, none of these comes close to Obama’s cool quotient.

The phrase “as cool as a cucumber” ought to be changed to “as cool as Obama” with no delay.

And by the way, we’re told he walked into the Situation Room in his golf shoes!

Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer