Kochiite backs Obama, his classmate

Kochiite backs Obama, his classmate
Wednesday June 11 2008 10:43 IST Manu Bharat

KOCHI: Good Luck Barry, you are sure to win. The message is from an old classmate of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate in the US presidential elections. What’s so special about a greeting? It’s from Kochi. Advocate M Ajay is all prayers for his classmate at the Harvard Law School.

"We are overwhelmingly thrilled, no one can be otherwise when his classmate is almost sure to assume the powerful post of the US President,"said Ajay, a student of the Law School during 1990-91.

The Kochi lawyer, who had specialised in corporate law, remembers how Barry came to Harvard as an ordinary student. Within no time he won the admiration of the whole crowd at Harvard and became popular.

He was the first African-American to win the president’s post of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, Ajay said. From basketball court to the dais of serious academic debates, Barry was a crowdpuller.

The Harvard website makes Ajay travel back to the memorable times of his student life. "The days in Harvad were hectic. Barry hardly got time to meet Michelle, his wife who was also a student of the Law School," he said.

Harvard was known for its conservatism and in Boston the elite White Anglo- Saxon Protestants had dominance. But Barry was a unifying force and his calibre transcended racial barriers. Ajay is fully excited while speaking of Obama.

The Harvard alumni is now running a ‘Vote for Obama’ campaign on the Internet. "I will suggest to him to bring in Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F Kennedy, into the campaign as that would increase his chance of winning. The Kennedy family has mass support in US," he pointed out.

Referring to his other popular classmates, Ajay said, "United States Solicitor- General Paul Clement was also part of Harvard during our times. Rahul Gandhi joined the Law School at that time, but discontinued his studies immediately."