The Indian Resilience and why Bharat will still be mahaan.

Folks,
It all ended well,
My son and I are feeling swell,
We were undaunted
And hence were counted.
The mark on the Index finger has quite a story to tell

"Jaagore" helped us hope
and we didn't at least have to exchange any note
Just to be able to give our vote.

The process of getting voter id cards was over a few weeks back and we were very pessimistic. We clutched to our acknowledgement slips which proved that we had given our details as required. We also kept visiting the various sites where we could find out if we were included in the electoral rolls. We were apparently not on the list till a week ago.My son tried a last ditch effort at night on 22nd April and lo and behold our names were there. So we quickly took down the details of Part numbers and serial number. It was now a family affair. My husband got up early on 23rd and made a round of nearby booths and found out the one where we were listed. I have to credit the "Jaagore" website in keeping our hopes of voting alive. In its absence we would have not thought of taking our other ids and going. In the end it was all a breeze. On reflection, I guess this is how most of our people in India manage. Somehow at the end of the month most of us are still standing and smiling and hoping.
Three cheers to the IT guys who maintain the Chief Election officer, Karnataka's website. They seemed to have raced against time to update these lists.

Election gets personal

I have an enthusiastic, awake young son who has just attained voting age. He wants to vote. We got the Form 6 which is needed to obtain the voter id. This is to be submitted to “Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike” office. (This is the way the government wants us to give our cheques and DDs . So those hell-bent on these changes have not fully updated to the not so new name of our city.) . It must be a series of coincidence that I found the place open only on my 5th or 6th attempt to submit the form. That ultimately happened in the month of September. After that we were supposed to get the photo id. But that chance never came. We went to our HELPLINE set up for our constituency in Bommasundra, a suburb of Bangalore. It was full of duty conscious people patiently waiting for their turn outside what can at best be described as a tightly pulled down shutter. It would open once in 30-40 minutes and as many people as could, would squeeze in. After two such surges, we were close to our “Open Sesame” moment. People were getting impatient and tempers and decibels were going up. This was a good two hours after we arrived and 3 hours before the helpline was supposed to close. At the third surge, it was close to a stampede and one cop who most would be voters thought was drunk took it upon himself to use his lathi. At first he gave it to a dozen or so people and then he started hitting the ground. This is when a helpful senior looking cop advised us to simply go home and come back later. We pride ourselves as being a big democracy.

We are probably the largest pool of people who will go to any length, to try and vote. How many become actually eligible is a big question. I still remember the TV footage where late Pramod Mahajan was helplessly stating that even his name was not on the electoral list. The impression it has had on the enthusiasm of my 19 year old is what led me to write about his

Quest to give a vote….

The point to note is that I am awake
I never shirked when it was time to take
A risk or a vital decision to make.
The point to note
Is I am ready to vote.

I applied, and applied and then re-applied
I cajoled, I hustled and bustled and I tried
And unlike what “Jaagore” implied,
The path to cast a vote is narrow, not wide,
And it is thus that for me, democracy died.

I am no poet but a writer and critic.
The story to be told is tragically pathetic
A boy of just nineteen is already bitter
“I Voted” is something he perhaps can never twitter

http://www.jaagore.com/