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Das, Siddhartha Extra Sheet <br />Please explain why you want to be appointed to the City Council: <br />As a college student, I used to go to a weekly chemistry tuition, back in India. It was a <br />five-minutes-walk from the bus stop. I used to pass by a homeless mother holding her <br />little toddler. The toddler always appeared to be weak and sick. There was a cake shop <br />at the bus stop. I used to buy a slice of cake with whatever allowance I used to have, <br />and give that to the toddler on my way. One day, the toddler was not there any more. <br />The mother was lying on the side walk, dejected. <br />Since then, I have traversed multiple continents. Got married to an exceptional lady who <br />grew up in a country that, before I met her, I did not know existed. At one point, two of <br />us carried four different passports. We met at Yale. We have enjoyed the ‘relative’ <br />privilege of being a part of the ‘have’s. But, it is impossible for me to forget that mother. <br />And, as I traversed continents, I learned that it is the same everywhere: even that <br />mother carries the burden of the privilege that I enjoy; even she pays the tax when she <br />tries to get her humble necessities from a shop. I want to give back. I want a world <br />where all of us not only live happily and in good health ourselves, but also help our <br />neighbors to attain so; and, some of our neighbors might be ‘have not’s. <br />Now I am a dad of a toddler, born here in San Leandro. He rides his balance bike <br />around the streets here. Runs around and tries to climb everything in the playgrounds <br />here. And, shows me signs of “Warming center” and asks me what that is. He needs a <br />village to grow up. <br />Why do I want to be a part of the City Council? Because, I want to be a part of the <br />organized effort to give back to our community, my son’s village.