Indian woman to advise Obama
Thu, November 20 2008
Sonal hails from Gabat village in Sabarkantha district, 90 km from Gujarat’s main city Ahmedabad.
“Sonal being inducted by the U.S. president-elect Barack Obama’s 15-member advisory group is significant to us and memorable indeed,” said Rajubhai, a village resident who is presently working in Kheda district.
“We feel proud that our Gabat village has been put on the global map.”
Sonal’s uncle, Mukundbhai Shah, 60, who lives in the village, observed: “Whenever my brother comes here, he always carries some soil from the village when he returns to the U.S. He is indeed proud of his Gabat village and can never resist doing that. It is this soil that Sonal represents.”
The euphoria over Sonal’s new responsibilities is akin to the adulation showered on Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, whose ancestral village is in north Gujarat too. Both women hail from nearly similar middle class families with rural backgrounds.
By V.N. Balakrishnan
