Few Observations During the Day of Poll (Lok Sabha 2019)

People who know me know that I voted for the first time in my life yesterday. It was a breezy experience for me, but not without a few critical observations I made during my time at the local polling station.

• The electoral list is not smart enough and randomly assigns voters to polling booths. That is why a certain man in his 60s kept cribbing (rightly so) he had to climb the stairs to the third floor of the school
  • Or the local election body did not think to go through the voters' age before assigning classrooms as booths. Ground floor for people in their 50s and above or those with special abilities and the highest floor for the youth - or something like that
  • A lack of elevators and ramps in at least two of the polling stations in my locality meant people with special abilities went back home without posting their ballots or did not even consider. Save for the brave ones
• It is impossible to choose a candidate who is a saint; but then can politicians ever be saints?
• Some candidates have absolutely poor aesthetic and logical abilities; just looking at some of the party logos made me think about their volition to contest
• Despite police bandobast, the locality was a bit more lawless than it is on any other day. People carrying 20 chairs on a motorcycle, parking in the middle of the road, misbehaving with policemen or government officials (although, usually it's the other way around), and staring at the opposite sex became more apparent, unhindered
• A lack of interest in going to vote because of the heat or the polling booth is not near where they live.

Walking out of the polling booth, having my left index finger inked gave me a good feeling even though choosing whom to vote was a mind-numbing exercise the previous day. It sort of made me feel good about the idea of democracy but then I came home and things were back to normal within an hour. Which makes me liken the idea of voting to that of any activity that you do for pleasure. You crave for it before you do it. But once you have done it, you really start questioning its impact. TN.

And lastly, here's the mandatory selfie I took after I voted.

Featured image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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