Recognition of IndiaStudyChannel by Mr. Obama !
On 27 May, I got an email with the subject "President Obama wants to talk to you". I deleted that email without even opening since I knew about such spam emails.Next day, I received an early morning phone call at my home telephone with the introduction "This is a call from President Obama's office". I disconnected it immediately because I thought it is either a marketing call from some company or it is a fund raising call from real Obama's office.
After 2 hours, I saw the telephone ringing again and this time my 5 year old son picked up the phone. I heard him asking questions like "Who is Obama ?", "Why are you calling", "My name is ..." etc. I let him play with it few seconds since I was so frustrated with the fundraising calls for a while.
After a minute, my son walked into my room and handed over the phone to me and said: "President Obama wants to talk to you". I picked up the phone, put it on speaker and started talking "How can I help you, Mr. president ?"
There was a female voice from the other end, talking in a very soft voice saying "I am calling from President's office and like to talk to the management of IndiaStudyChannel.com".
I was speechless for few seconds. I took down my hands from my computer keyboard, turned off the speakers on the phone and ran to a room and closed the doors. Then I asked the lady "Is this really from president's office ?". The lady did not reply to my question, but she said "Mr. president is interested to know about the success of IndiaStudyChannel.com and would like to talk to you in person. Do you mind providing us with some information about IndiaStudyChannel including how it was started and what are the major factors involved in the huge growth of this site".
I was not really convinced if she was calling from President's office or someone was trying to cheat me. But I decided to give some information carefully, without really revealing any confidential matters.
I was sweating due to the confusion and the importance of the call if it was really president's call. I said "Please give me 1 hour time to prepare some information" and I asked her to call me back after an hour. She agreed and disconnected the call.
Then I searched in Google for her phone number that was shown in Telephone Caller Id. To my surprise, I found that the telephone number belongs to "International Education division of President Obama".
I got into action really quick, gathered a lot of information and summarized them into few pages. After an hour, the same person called me again and discussed ISC and the success story for about 30 minutes. The highlights of our discussion are these:
1. What are the primary factors behind the success of ISC ?
My Answer: There are several factors. Moderated, high-quality content is a major factor.
2. How do you manage/moderate so much content ? How can you manage the huge expenses involved in editing?
My Answer: We have several volunteering editors who work for ISC just because of their passion towards this site. We do not pay a lot of money to the editors. They are the backbones of ISC and without our editors, we won't be able to continue to provide the same quality of content we provide now. All editors and webmasters are like a single family in IndiaStudyChannel.com
3. America is interested in starting a similar educational site which offers free educational material to the Americans. Will you be able to provide us guidance and advice? Will your editors be able to help us ?
My Answer: We will be more than happy to share our knowledge and experience in case you like to start a similar site for America. We may not be able to give the service of our editors since we do not want to lose them. They are all busy with their own work and education. They love to use their spare time in ISC and we won't be able to share our editor's valuable time with you.
4. Will you be able to give a demonstration of IndiaStudyChannel.com to Mr. President ? If so, we would prefer to have it on 6 June 2009 since he is attending an Internation Education session in New York on that day and have around 1 hour time allotted to see various successful international educational websites.
My Answer: Yes, I will be more than happy to do so.
5. Okay, our office will make the hotel and flight ticket reservations for you. Please fill our travel information document with your information and send back to my office today itself.
My Answer: Yes, sure.
On next day, a person from the local city administration walked into my home and handed over the flight ticket for me/family along with several security badges to get into President's office.
On 4 June 2009, I took the flight to New York to meet Mr. Obama and demonstrate ISC to him.
On 6 June 2009, evening around 7:30 PM, I was taken from the hotel room by 3 security officers to the New York State University where the president was attending the conference on International education. I wasn't really allowed to enter the conference room, but after around an hour waiting, I was taken to a room. I saw Mr. Obama standing near the glass window, watching the ocean. He appeared to be thinking something (may be how to resolve the economic crisis !)
When he noticed me entering the room, he walked towards his office table and offered his hand to me. My hands were shaking and I forgot to offer the handshake. He was very dynamic and said "Come on man, how are you doing today?
Before I could reply anything, a lady appeared (same lady who spoke to me ?) and said "we have only 2 minutes before the next session for Mr. President. I have already explained IndiaStudyChannel to Mr. President. So, the president just wants to thank you for providing us all the information requested. May be you can have a photo taken with Mr. president and also ask any questions you have."
I did not know what to ask, so I said: "let me have a photo taken first". In a second, 2 people appeared from behind a curtain with camera and lights. We had 3 photos taken there. Then the lady showed me a book which has a "Certificate of Thanks" from President Obama. I opened the book in front of him and Obama also took a peak at the certificate. There was another photo taken at that moment and that is shown above.
President thanked me once again and then I was escorted by the officers back to the hotel room. I picked up the phone and called my wife to say that "I am still safe and not kidnapped by someone claiming to be president's office"! I returned to Houston next day morning. Throughout the flight, I was thinking about the recognition ISC received by this invitation from Mr. Obama.
I feel so proud about this recognition ISC received. I thank all editors and members of ISC who made this happen. I feel ISC is in the top of the world now !
DISCLAIMER: This is a story as part of the ISC story competition. However, the photo is not fake! It is a real photo taken at Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York, USA