Shekar Narasimhan, co-founder and chief executive officer, Beekman Advisors, is an emerging and an active fundraiser for Senator Barack Obama's campaign on the East Coast and a much sought after sponsor of second-generation Democratic activists and activities.
The erstwhile mortgage banker, who is also co-chair of the Indo-American Leadership Council -- a Democratic National Committee appendage -- along with Dr Mahinder Tak and Sunita Leeds, was a co-sponsor of the first and only Indian-American event organised by the Indian American Leadership Initiative at the Democratic National Convention, and several other events in the run-up to the Convention.
Obama singled Narasimhan out and thanked him for the highly successful fundraiser for the Obama campaign and the DNC he put together along with Tak and other Asian American community leaders at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, which raised nearly $1.5 million.
Narasimhan was also supportive of the second-generation Indian-American events featuring actor Kal Penn at the Arlington, Virginia home of Democratic Party activist Toby Chaudhuri.
Narasimhan, who has been a scrupulous student of the rise in political activism of second-generation Indian Americans, particularly in the last year-and-half, into a critical mass in support for Obama, told India Abroad, "It's a confluence of forces. Things have come together."
"First of all, we have a candidate who in his own words is a honourary Indian American and Pakistani American. He has the credentials to speak to us, and he understands what we look like. He can pronounce our names correctly, and like it has been said at various times, he is the only Presidential candidate who pronounces Pakistan correctly," he said.
"We can associate with him, our kids can associate with him and we can empathise. We can see his experience and relate to him and that's unique -- very unique," he added.
"The second is, we've moved beyond the let's write a check and get a photograph taken stage to we want engagement. We want our policy issues addressed, we want our people and our faces in the administration," he said.
"So, we are at the stage, where, in order to have that level of engagement, all of us have to spend a lot more time than flying in, going to a fundraiser and walking out. So, there is now time being spent that was never spent before. And then there's this man, and his message that so inspires young people."
Narasimhan said, "I've been involved in politics for 24 years and he is the first man who can walk into a room and the young people say, 'It's not just the message, it's not just him, it's the time -- our time. This is the time when people are looking to change. He embodies the change, and he says, 'It's not about me, it's about you and it's about us.' And, I don't think anyone has ever brought all these crushing forces together in this unique way at this moment in time."
He said that this time around, young people have also written out checks, and this was immensely significant.
"When young people write a check you know there is a commitment. No campaign, with the exception during the period of time of Howard Dean, brought this factor out."
But does it assure success?
"I don't want to get optimistic here and say, because we have young people involved, they will vote," Narasimhan replied. "That has not happened before and it may not happen again. But, they are behaving differently this time -- they are writing checks, they are engaging in a different manner than they ever did before."
Narasimham said one of the interesting things about the fundraiser he helped put together in Washington, DC, was that "there were also a lot of students who paid $250 -- and that's big money for a student."
He said, "Senator Obama personally believes this. He doesn't simply want to go into a room with the old fat cats. This is not what this campaign is about. So, we had to design a fundraiser where we could have this very broad swing of contributors, and we said very categorically, we need to bring 150 or more young professionals and young adults. The only way we could do that was by lowering the bar in terms of dollars. We engaged them [youth] in the process of planning the event. We promised them that we will have events with people like Kal Penn."
Narasimhan said in the first week of September "there will be a mass rally for Asian Americans -- all of us, adults, kids, in-betweens. So, they will feel not just lip service, but a genuine, serious, methodical commitment -- to them, their issues. And I want to see their faces on the stage, I want to see them in the administration. They are the ones that will create the change."