october the 13th

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It was October 13th 2006. The day local body elections were to be conducted in Tamilnadu. I was very eager the day before, as this was the first time that I decided to actually see how these processes were taking place. I am 20 years old and have the right to vote. But the officers said that my name was not in the electoral list though I had given the application two years before. I wonder why the chief election officer and other intellectuals give a hue and cry that people do not have any interest in voting and the voting percentage is very low!!

As I was not allowed to vote, I decided to stay here in my hostel in Coimbatore and roam about the city on the day of the elections. On 13th I woke up at 7.00 am, me being the first to wake up in the hostel!! I heard some faint whispers and initially I thought I was just dreaming things as I was still feeling sleepy. But now, I could hear them more clearly. I looked at my roommate who was fully covered with the blanket. I thought he was blabbering in his sleep and gently tapped him. “Machan* are you alright?” I asked. He removed his blanket and I realized that he was speaking in the mobile!! I remembered seeing him attend a call at around 11 pm from his dear one and from that time he is speaking continuously for 8 hours in the same position!! If the Guinness people come to my hostel, they may get many world records like this! Maximum time over the phone, maximum time of sleeping, (36 hours is the record by my classmate), maximum days without bath etc., after all what is hostel life for?? The problem with guys like me is though I am not interested in talking over the phone for hours and hours or not interested to beg a girl for her friendship for that matter, guys like my room mate make us feel guilty!! At times I have wondered why do we really have a cell phone in which I have never messaged to any girl or called. But later I convince my self and say that there are more things in life precious than this.

I had my bath and came back to my room, dressed up and got ready. I was about to leave when my roommate said “GOODNIGHT MACHAN!!!!!” I smiled and then left the room!!

While passing my friend’s room I remembered that he had a vote and in order to ask when he is going to cast the vote I entered his room just to find that he was sleeping too. I woke up and asked “when are you going to vote da?” He said “Vote?? F**k u I am going to sleep throughout the day!” I expected this answer and said “this is a democracy da!!”. He replied “Is this goddamned democracy going to change just because I vote? Now let me sleep!!” I was in no mood to argue with him and continued walking.

Once I came out of my hostel, the atmosphere was so calm and peaceful. I went to some polling booths and found that people were waiting in queue to cast their votes and everything was in perfect order! That was a wonderful scene! I asked a police constable nearby “So? How is the election going?” He said “very peaceful in Coimbatore. Thank god I am posted here” and went. I called up a relative of mine who is a police officer. He did not pick up for the first three times. Fourth time he picked up and spoke in a very rapid and panicked voice! I asked “so? The elections are very peaceful??” He shouted “are you kidding? Look at the news and call me back tonight”. I sensed that something was wrong and rushed to my hostel immediately and went straight to the TV room. Already many were there and I peeped in to look at what’s happening!

The news was shocking!! It showed a mob trying to capture a polling booth!! Ballot papers were scattered. Some were severely hurt and many were shouting and running. There were chaos and the whole place was like pandemonium. The newsreader said that this was the worst election in the history of Tamilnadu and the worst violence witnessed so far. I was not able to look at that any more and returned to my room.

Later that night, I called up that police officer and asked him

“is this how elections take place every time??”

“Yes. This is new to you”

“Why do we need to conduct elections if it is going to be like this?”

“Because, this is a democratic country!!”

“Where is the democracy? It was worse than a dictatorship! Can’t you do anything to stop the violence?”

“We can but we will be transferred the next day. If we do not worry about getting transferred and continue to be honest and perfect at the place where which we are transferred, we will again be transferred before we can think of doing any good to the people. So we cannot do anything except to watch silently. This is new to you. You will get used to it soon. Bye.”

I really didn’t know what to say. I imagined what the chief minister was going to say the next day! “oh! We were just trying to increase the poll percentage you know?” one more thing which I forgot to mention is all the rowdies who were involved in this act were uniformly dressed in black and white!!! Fantastic na?? I remembered my friend saying that Chennai is a very peaceful place to live and Chennai only witnessed the maximum violence!!

This wouldn’t have happened if the leaders have a confidence that they would win. For that they should have been very pure, honest and must have done least welfare to the people. Unless and otherwise they do that the same situation will prevail!!

HAIL OUR DEMOCRACY!!!!!!