Image: Niece Savita charms Obama

Who would have thought an American President would have a niece named Savita?

The little girl being tossed into the air by the most powerful person on the planet is Maya Soetoro Ng's younger daughter. Maya is, of course, Barack O's half-sister.

Maya's father was Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman; her mother Ann Dunham, who is also Barry's mum, was a cultural anthropologist who moved to Jakarta after her first marriage to BHO's dad, also named Barack Obama, ended.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has centuries of association with Hinduism. As Wikipedia informs us, Hinduism is 'also known by its formal Indonesian name Agama Hindu Dharma. It is practised by 93% of the population of Bali, but also in Sumatra, Java, Lombok and Kalimantan.'

The Ramayan and Mahabharat are a strong part of Indonesian tradition; danced and puppet performances of the great Hindu epics are common. Some years ago, Ramanand Sagar's version of the Ramayan was screened on Indonesian television.

It is not uncommon for Indonesians to have Hindu sounding names. One recent President of that country was Megawati Sukarnoputri (geddit? Sukarno's daughter).

Her name was apparently recommended by Oriya political legend Biju Patnaik -- whose younger son is that state's current chief minister -- who flew Megawati's dad Sukarno and another important leader, Dr Sultan Sjharir, to safety during the Indonesian fight for freedom from the Dutch in 1945.

The Left-leaning Sukarno -- one of whose wives was named Dewi; they had a daughter called Karthika -- later became president of his country, but was ousted in a coup by the US-backed Suharto, who was the man in charge of Indonesia when a six-year-old, curly-haired, American boy named Barack Obama arrived with his mother to begin a new life in that country.

Ann Dunham, who The New York Times once described as 'A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama's Path', ensured that her son absorbed the multi-cultural influences around him, which set him apart from American kids his age when he returned to the US and made him such an attractive candidate in last year's presidential election.

Maya Soetoro Ng, who has a PhD in education, is married to Canadian-Chinese scholar Konrad Ng.

The elegant Maya, who is currently working on a book titled Ladder to the Moon, told rediff.com last year that her brother Barack had been a peacemaker from early on in life. She has an older daughter named Suhaila. Alas, we couldn't find out how the Ngs came to call their younger tyke Savita.

Image: Barack Obama plays with his niece Savita Ng during a recent vacation at Martha's Vineyard. Photograph: Pete Souza/White House.