I already like the incoming US ambassador. No, I didn’t quite know Nancy J Powell during her earlier stint in New Delhi from 1992 to 1995. My instant connect is thanks to the social media, YouTube to be precise.
 
For a moment I want to shake away the cynical columnist in me and doff my hat to the public diplomacy folks behind the scenes. In just 2 minutes 36 seconds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5KkmehoixQ&feature=share) these creative heads have de-stereotyped who must be a hard-as-nails mandarin into the most likeable persona one might expect. Which actually is at the core of the prowess of pictures and the social media.
 
For those who still like reading rather than viewing, thank you! You give us columnists our raison d’etre! So, here’s my description of what the video in question is: Powell is placed amidst an arresting setting around the White House and Capitol Hill, speaking with empathy and insight, shooting from a sophisticated camera, wearing a large overcoat and a smile to match the warm eyes. The cuts are swift and the visual interplay and script seem to have been done by folks who know. If they are ‘babus’ I must say Uncle Sam is blessed with really creative ones. If it’s a professional agency that did the video, they’ve been chosen well.
 
Powell starts with a “namaskar,” introduces herself with an affable grannie-like smile (don’t mind if you read this ma’am, we in India use this description sparingly and indulgently!). With felicity she then talks of how she’ll be the new ambassador to India, how she had a very nice time in the three years she were here, how she loves to take pictures, how she’s sharing some of those pictures right away, how having done that she won’t be looking back at the past, but she’d rather connect with the rapid strides the two nations are taking together.
 
Right through there’s a play of some sparkling pictures of Washington’s monuments. The ambassador-designate tells us she walks around them, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, drawing inspiration. I didn’t see play acting, but authenticity instead. Comments on Martin Luther King blend fittingly into an archival visual of Mahatma Gandhi. So, here she will be, missing the city she loves and lives in, but eager to make up by travelling through the length and breadth of the land she’s being seconded. (Are the India pictures from Avinash Pasricha?)
 
I might not have gotten the pronunciation right, but Powell ends the video with, “Phir Milenge.”
 
Now, why is a serious policy publication featuring a “mere” video? My guess is that, first, you might want to watch it. Next, you may hate the Yankees, but at the end of 2.36 minutes, you might leave your computer a little more trustful for the time Powell is in charge. Conversely, if you’re in love with them already, you’ll love ’em some more, you might even viral the video (hint! hint!) to some folks on your Facebook or email. If you are an analytical type, you might, as some desi Joe’s already have on YouTube, even sigh and say, “wish our babus thought like this.”
 
All these eminently respectable reactions are scores in public diplomacy (PD), ie, they involve you and me, shake us and draw us into an obtuse craft we barely understand beyond visa queues.
 
To that extent, Powell and her backroom boys and girls have started with a 10. They’ll need to remain just as creative in the real thing.
 
Knowing how smart and creative our own PD folks are (they nudged Nirupama Rao and then even the PMO on Twitter; they have over 50,000 likes/fans on Facebook; some coffee table books—Plug: just go for India, The Spirit of Enterprise and The India Idea when you have a chance; they commission video from Urdu to symphonies that I filch regularly!; a contest on you tune that had Shashi Tharoor and Shekhar Kapoor building the traction, they’re even supporting the Michael Porter Prize celebrating India’s most competitive companies) I won’t be surprised if a class act follows for each envoy we send from Accra to Zanzibar.
 
While I hope some of our envoys are filmed just as nicely, and around areas of their prowess not just oversized cameras, I also expect the two sides not just to compete on creativity, but collaborate on virality.
 
Let’s keep an eye on this one. Meanwhile, where’s the release, Press Officer?!!