Vote is this!

I am a non voter by choice or maybe by laziness. Haven’t voted anyone to Parliament or for that matter to school head boy.

Today was different. My benevolent neighbour, who has a Dr prefix to his name, dashed into my living room this morning. The next 20 mins were spent in a monologue on my housing society elections. I received a crash course on who’s good, bad and ugly and who needed to be voted for and why. In culmination, he thrust a chit of paper into my hand and said this is the list that you vote for. I felt like a dumb voter, which I am, who had just been subtly brainwashed into voting for a list of Martians, for all u know.

This is how most of India votes for most elections. There are no real issues; the issues if any are never in the public domain. Most voters are ignorant, a lot of them vote by habit, few of them feel pride in fulfilling their constitutional duty and a few others are even thankful that they are being asked to express their opinion.

I voted for my neighbour, some uncles and some of my uncle’s friends.

Comments

Sharan Sharma said…
Title is typical Ajith!

But we are actually the deprived lot...the slum voters would at least get booze/blouse-piece...

i think someone should do a psych. study on guys standing for society elections...have never been able to understand what motivates them...tchae...how stupid of me! - the painting contract, of course.
August 07, 2006 8:32 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Begs the Question

Beggars are as much a part of Mumbai as the Gateway of India. Over the last 10 years of actively roaming around the city, the no of cars have increased and so have the no of beggars. What has also changed is the kind of beggars in the city. The first kind of beggar that I encountered was the simple woebegone face kinds who would sit by the roadside and keep uttering monosyllables the year round. There was no strategy of any kind in place, and the adage beggars can’t be choosers used to get played out. Most of them seemed fatalistic. As the economy evolved and liberalized, so did beggars. For one, I think even the beggar economy opened up. There were a lot many more beggars because there was a lot many more economic activity (and hence money to be handed out) and a lot many more people. The quality of begging also changed. Some beggars, in order to differentiate their pitch, started to exhibit their skills. So you had harmonium totting kids and adults causing disharmony in trains. Strat
Read more

Plane Truths II

Image
Continuing my series of what happens to me in relation to airplanes, I have a gem to share. The wrestle of the arm rest can be quite irritating especially when both adversaries want it equally badly. The war of course is lost right at the beginning if one of the adversaries has an arm that's armrest size! My Chennai to Mumbai flight was spent in half a seat, with me folded up around an imaginary vertical axis, actually measuring kilometers to Mumbai and counting down time. I thought I was lucky to get a window seat, my luck ended the moment the middle seat next to me and half of my seat got occupied by a gargantuan who was impersonating a human being. Arm rest was the first casualty, I gave it up in the first 5 secs; my midriff also was being molested constantly by the elbow of the beast. Am not slightly built either but I know how to mark my territory out and contain my body within. Land grabbing was being rendered a new meaning by my sizable neigbour and I felt a bit like Papua N
Read more

Footpath- quite pedestrian

Image
I grew up in a Govt. colony in Mumbai. This meant that I had the luxury of a lot of things that were absent in the city outside campus. One of these was the footpath. Right since I was a toddler, I was instructed to keep to the footpath, lest I get in the path of a ‘speeding’ Fiat (that’s an oxymoron). That might sound funny, but the inherent message was clear, steer clear of the motorist. In a city where cars outnumber themselves everyday, it’s become a challenge to find a footpath. Most of you might have noticed this but its worth reiterating. 1. Footpaths do exist. Just that above them also exist a layer called hawkers. This layer is more permanent than pedestrian aspirations and difficult to remove. 2. Footpaths do exist. Just that above them frequently is a mosaic of human excreta, with some dog poo thrown in between. Nearby slums can’t do their bit on the highway can they and there’s nowhere else to go. 3. Footpaths do exist. Just that often the BMC or MTNL or MMRDA or such body
Read more