Get a Gmail account now

Google has opened up Gmail in a few countries (Australia, South Africa, Egypt and Japan). If you do not live in anyone of those countries, you can still create a Gmail account.
Use a proxy from anyone of those countries where Gmail is opened up and voila you have a Gmail account.
For some strange reasons, I was not getting the link(create Gmail account) on the Gmail home page, but when I signed out and came back to Gmail homepage I could see the link.