2008 US Presidential Election

I have read about past US presidential elections in newspapers in India. But this is first time I am in US during the presidential elections.
First of all some background on the US political system. There are two phases in Presidential election. First is primaries and second is actual election. US politics is the contest between two political parties. Democrats and Republicans. Primaries are conducted by each party to select their Presidential candidate. People who want to contest for presidential nomination start their ground work well in advance, at least two years in advance. Process starts with formation of exploratory committee and any serious candidate starts their campaign in the state of Iowa and New Hampshire. These are two states that vote early in the primary season. And they follow two different format. Iowa's primary is caucus and New Hampshire's primary is by casting the vote (ballot). Caucus format, eligible voters assembly in local precinct and vote for their candidate of choice. If a candidate gets less than some percentage (usually 15%), then their supporters have to chose other candidate. By this way, less serious candidates are eliminated. Each candidates is alloted delegates based on the percentage of the votes (Democrats). Or in some states like Florida, winner takes all the delegates (only Republicans follow this format).
During 2008 primaries, Barack Obama won Iowa caucus. Hillary Clinton came second. She won New Hampshire primary. Among Republics Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucus. John McCain came second and Mitt Romney came third. John McCain won New Hampshire.
Since Republicans have 'winner takes all', John McCain emerged as Republican presidential candidate. Former New York mayor Rudy Guliani staked all his odds against Florida primary and didnt make it. As it happens always, all candidates support the winning candidate.
Democratic primary follows the proportionate allotment of delegates based on the percentage of votes won. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won almost equal number of delegates. Clinton won large states like Florida, California, New York etc. Some of the best discussions happened between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during Democratic primaries. We friends used to follow the Democratic primary very closely. It used to be one of our topic during our lunch breaks. Every states primary gained importance due to tight Democratic primary race. Even Pennsylvania primary which come towards end of the primary season gained tremendous importance. Clinton won that primary. Our home state, Ohio primary was also won by Clinton.
Eventually Barack Obama nudged past Hillary Clinton and she conceded defeat. Democratic party was highly polarised. But Clinton threw her weight behind Obama and majority of her supporters (including Bill Clinton) came to Obama camp.
Actual election was not even half existing as Democratic primary. John McCain chose Alaska Governer Sarah Palin as Vice presedential candidate and Back Obama chose Joe Biden as his VP pick. Sarah Palin revived careers of many Saturday Night Live artists (notable being Tina Fey).
As everybody knows, Barack Obama won the presedential election and made history. He is first African American president America has ever seen.

ಕಂಗುಳು -ತುಳು ಜಾನಪದ ನೃತ್ಯ (Kangulu Tulu Folk Dance)

Kangulu is one of Tulu folk dance performed by folks belonging to lower strata of the caste structure. Dancers in Kangulu come from a close knit community of Untouchable. Kangulu dance is done during the Tulu Month of Mayi(around March) full moon day.

On the day of Kangulu dance, a group of men gather at the village temple (typically the Babbu swamy temple. Babbu swamy being the patron god of untouchables). They prepare dress using the tender coconut leaves. They remove the sturdy stick like thing from the leaf and hence it becomes easy to wrap around the hip. Also some of them wrap that coconut leaves around the shoulder. They use petromax light and torch made out of dried coconut leaves. Kangulu dance team is lead by the head of the clan (also called 'Maara'. Literal translation means Manmatha, Hindu god for Kama)

First dance is invariably at the village deity and they follow a heirarchy of the village houses ('Gutthu'). Kangulu dance consists of three parts. First part is group dance where all the Kangulu dancers dance around the coconut leaf torch or Petromax lamp. Second dance is called 'Kadigana' where one of the elderly man gets a big sturdy stick and does a jumping dance. Third dance is 'Pilli dance' (Pilli is the Tulu word for tiger). In this dance, one guys acts like tiger and other guy acts like a hunter with gun. This symbolizes the hunting ritual that was common in olden days for controlling the wild life population.

Each dance is succeded by donation. Olden days donation was only in the form of rice. Kadigana gets few anas (16 anas = 1 Indian Rupees).

Over the years the people that want to participate in Kangulu has gone down and in many villages the Kangulu tradition has stopped completely. I remember as a Elementary school kid, waiting for the Kangulu team to come to our house for dance. It was really exciting time. With the changes in the social orders and better education, this cultural has almost died. I havent heard any Kangulu dance being performed in any near by village.

Hopefully whenever I get a chance to witness one of this dance, I will be able to record this tradition so that future generation will have a glimpse of this TULU CULTURE.