What if Donald Trump really didn't want to become the President of the United States?

What is it with us that we so lack in self-esteem we have to sit at the back of the bus. Just, volunteer to do it! An erudite man like Shashi Tharoor says we must get to Washington first and reach out to Donald Trump. Why? Why should we reach out and if we are doing it are we supposed to carry a begging bowl and who, indeed, are we trying to outpace? Do we jump the queue to snitch about Pakistan or bunny hop over to China pleased, “Uncle, Uncle, make us your favoured ones”? Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has a Trump party in Mumbai and it becomes big news . An ultra-right Hindu group (Hindu Sena) led by a guy called Vishnu Gupta dances in the streets and distributes sweets to celebrate their new messiah’s anointing. Why this frenzy and concern? Last week, Indians were by and large badmouthing the ‘clown’ and now there is all this desperate dredging for virtue in the same man. We didn’t vote him into power, America did and we don’t have to act like natives celebrating the arrival of the ‘massa’. It has absolutely nothing to do with us directly and we can simply acknowledge the fact that he won without making idiots of ourselves. There are these photographs of Indians jumping up and down with joy and throwing gulal in New Delhi and I am thinking how many Bobs and Buds and Brocks did it for us when we elected a prime minister. Sure, enjoy the mass media coverage, have an opinion, even be political, it is the most powerful job in the world but stop surrendering so much space to Caesar and behaving like inferior petitioners. Many years ago, a senior executive applied for a prestigious job in an exclusive company on a dare and a sizeable bet made in a bar. He was shortlisted and just as a lark he went for the interview and said his piece and was brutally candid, told the panel where they were wrong, what flaws the company had, how he would clean the mess and had a great time doing it. He came out laughing and shared the ‘fun’ he had been having in those 45 minutes saying it like it is. [caption id=“attachment_3097196” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of US president-elect Donald Trump. Reuters[/caption] He got the job. And he was stunned. Because he didn’t want it, just the challenge of it. It was the journey, not the getting there. Trump reminds me of that executive. He went into the fight for the fun of it, as a challenge. Almost as if to say, “Okay let’s do it, I can afford it.” So he was outrageous, he was controversial and he had a blast because he did not really expect to win. Maybe he didn’t even want to win. He was just smarting from all the jibes he faced and the caricature he was being made into. Even until yesterday, the predictions did not favour him. He didn’t realise he was hitting a national nerve, catching the pulse, he was just having a blast. It is said you should be careful what you ask for, you might get it. Trump has got it, but did he really want it. The odds are that even as the votes were coming in he was writing his concession speech. Then, when he found he was winning he must have retired to him room and said, “Sheesh, it’s awesome. S’wunnerful, but do I really want it?” What if he just did this as a bet to himself, to prove a point, so that for all the ‘roastings’ he has been given by media, political entities, Hollywood, the world’s leaders, they all have to eat humble pie and crow. What fun, what true revenge, but once the novelty wears off and politics and governance kick in and Trump has to surrender the personal freedom to lead the free world will he be comfortable in the claustrophobic environment of being POTUS?