On Tuesday, in a YouTube interview, USA President Barack Obama shared some of his personal items that he likes to carry all the time as he gets inspired and motivated by them whenever he feels stressed or disheartened. White House conducted the YouTube interview in an attempt to attract younger audiences as a part of promotion of Barack Obama’s final state of Union address.
Among those few items is a statue of Indian God Hanuman. During his interview with Nilsen, the YouTube creator, he pulled out those small items when he was asked to show off an item which is important to him personally. Each of the items reminds him “of all the different people I’ve met along the way.”
The inspiration items are – a Buddha statue he got from a monk, the rosary beads which were given to him by Pope Francis, a silver poker chip, a Coptic cross he got from Ethopia and a statue of God Hanuman.
In the words of Barack Obama, “I carry these around all the time. I’m not that superstitious, so it’s not like I think I necessarily have to have them on me at all times.”
He further added, “If I feel tired, or I feel discouraged sometimes, I can kind of reach into my pocket and say yeah, that’s something I can overcome, because somebody gave me the privilege to work on these issues that are going to effect them.”
Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan father and his mother, a white lady, belonged to Kansas. He has spent some beginning days of his life in Indonesia (Hinduism is a popular religion there).
However, we Indians are not very surprised as he already accepted it during his visit to India in 2015 Republic Day celebrations.