Exercising the rights to vote…

Abraham Lincoln once said,

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

A week before the day of voting, this is what I tell  my Superpartner after coming back from office, ‘I’m going to vote this time in Bangalore. Actually, pretty excited about it’. 5 years ago, this is what I asked my father, ‘I’m thinking whether to vote or not, what do you say?’ and this was my father’s reply, ‘If you think you have understood things enough to vote, please do, else I would say wait till the next elections’. This is what i tell my juniors in office, ‘these are rare opportunities – once in 5 years you see. All of us who keep doing those weekend calculations – (52*expected number of years that we will live) should be the first ones to cast a vote’. Being a country like ours where we still have a fourth of our population under the poverty line, it is pathetic to be spending (thinking of the kind of election related expenses) more than a time in 5 years. Political landscape for the first time seemed ‘interesting’ to me – a new party at a national level showing high hopes, the old timers talking of women empowerment, safety measures,  highways, flyovers and technological development which are some ‘fancy’ manifesto items to be heard of for common masses like us.

I’ve my voter card from another state – Rajasthan, but thanks to some of these drives which happened inside the MNC offices of Bangalore that we could shift our voter cards from one state to the other. As expected, the cards did not reach on time. Thanks to Internet, we could do a ctrl+f on our names in the respective ‘constitution assembly’ files and vote with the serial numbers and EPIC numbers listed down there. There was a joke on a popular radio channel where a man said ‘we are 4 in the family and none of us have apparently received a error-free voter card. My mother’s card has my wife’s photo, mine has my mother’s photo, the surname is incorrect in my father’s name and my wife’s voter card calls me as her father’. I laughed out loud on hearing the last bit of his sentence because i connected to it and in addition, the address on my e-card was partially incorrect too. As you can make out, there was a dearth of resources in the public departmen and such is their planning!

Maybe I’m growing, maybe i connect things a little better now (not as good as Cortana on the new WP8.1 ) but elections this time have been too different from what they were in yesteryears. There was awareness, there was some sort of a discipline, people all of a sudden seemed liberated and had realized their rights. The youth definitely is looking for a change. I saw a couple of voting booths while walking down to my voting station. There were young men and women helping voters like me. Young fellows in Reebok t-shirts, Levis Denims, Puma shoes, fast-track wrist-watches, well groomed. Thanks to the growing disposable income in the hands of India’s middle class, Brands and fashion is no longer an accessory to the Elite. It is for all. It was also delightful to see both men and women working on these booths. I remember, my friends from school whose mothers were Teachers and Principals telling me, ‘My mom has written a letter to the Election Commission stating she is ill and cannot make it for the election duties. You see, it is very dangerous to be standing on these booths for women’. Good to find that we have come out of the Gender discrimination.

Time for some reminiscences: Ma and Daddy walking inside the house with Ma’s standard question giggling, ‘Will you tell me whom did you vote for?’ and a roar of laughter from Daddy. Ma used to make amazing cold coffees. I walked down from the voting station, thinking about her, thinking a bit about the life I would have had if she was still around. I made cold coffee as the first thing – more milk (i’m heavily lactose tolerant ), more cream, more coffee but moderate sugar – the way I like the most.

An appeal to all the Non-Resident Indians who discuss politics on all social channels possible and all those groups in offices who discuss nothing but politics (but never vote!):

Kindly stop being too caring about the country and for Heaven’s sake, do not call the current public speakers ‘Idiots’ or some such names. They are better than you, courageous enough to stand up and talk. You don’t deserve to be discussing Politics. If you so much feel like, plan your visits to home nation around elections. Thinking the following way could make you plan better – Divide the amount of your return ticket by 5 (once in 5 years you see) and add it to the tax amount that you pay every year. It isn’t going to look too big, believe me.

I’m actually fed up seeing photographs of people on facebook in creme and white clothes with caps on their heads and flags in their hands, residing in the Americas and United Kingdom, speaking tons. Kindly vote because nothing else is going to serve the purpose.