The counting started at 7 PM and by 11 PM we had the final result. It is amazing especially for me who has seen elections in India and it takes at least 3 days to know the final result. Now coming back to election night, Obama won the election creating history by being the first African American to be the president. So many people cried that day and I can only imagine what they must have felt. Especially those people who have been alive before civil rights movement. It must be a vindication of sorts. I congratulate Obama and all those people.
The next day I was working in my office and I got a call from my manager to get 10 copies of that day's AJC newspaper. I did not understand at first why she needs 10 papers. While I was on my way to the AJC office, I saw at least one AJC news paper in everyone's hands. Some people were carrying multiple ones. I failed to understand why. When I went to the AJC office, I saw many people in the line for the newspapers. Then I understood that they want to preserve a copy of the newspaper which carried the news of the first African American President.
In the subsequent days all the major magazines like Time, Newsweek carried Obama's photo on the cover and they were collector's item. People stood in lines to get a copy of the magazine. If I was born in pre-independent India, I would have saved the newspaper which had the headline "India is independent!!!!". I guess this must be something of the same significance.
