The election fever has been running very high the last few weeks. There were messages running back and forth on how important it was to cast one's votes on the D Day.
My parents were one of the few early birds to cast the votes on that day. Unfortunately for them, the booth where they had to cast the votes had a malfunctioning electoral voting machine. I do understand that things could go wrong at the last minute and nothing is fool proof. But wondered how many of the electoral machines did not work on the D Day. Anyways, that was the reason they had still not come back home by the time I had got up. Finally someone had fixed the machine or brought in a new one. They cast their vote and came back after an hour. It was a holiday and I usually got up late from sleep on holidays. Sleep was always important to me. After finishing my breakfast, I walked to the election booth near my place. I did see that the police had put up a barricade near the school that served as the election booth and stopped people from driving their vehicles within a short radius.
I noticed how people (young and old alike) who lived just two streets away from the polling station did not walk to the booth. They came in their two wheelers. Vehicles have become a bane for the society we live in. People are so obsessed in going on a vehicle that they are not ready to walk for 10 to 15 minutes to a place. It was a holiday as well and all the shops were closed. There was no hurry to go back home. Why would you still not walk that short distance?
The queue to my polling booth was a little long. But I had no problem in waiting for my turn. That is when I noticed that many people where just not willing to wait. Indians in general are really bad in waiting in queues. Go to any place - shops, government offices, banks, temples, reservation counters to name a few. People always try to find ways to bypass the queues - any quick way by which they can get their work done immediately rather than waiting for their turn. There was a middle aged man standing in the queue for the last 20 minutes. Five minutes before he got his turn to enter, his young daughter and son walked in. He made way for them to get in the queue just before him. This is not an unusual scenario in India. His children did not even ask people if it was ok to join the queue or apologize for it. They did it as if it was their right to stand there.
Something else I had noticed was that most of the educated folks did not even take 2 minutes of their time to read the booth number on their voting sheet. They just came in there and then started asking people around on which was their booth. They did not even bother to read the notice printed on the door of every room that had the names of the streets that were included in that booth.
It seemed that people thought that there were doing a big favor for the country in casting their vote. And they had to be treated like royals for doing that. Everyone wore a bored look and wanted to just be done with it.
Well, after standing in the queue for 25 minutes, I was finally able to enter the room. I just hoped that they did not remove my name from the voter's list. And then voila, I finally cast my vote.
I walked back home feeling happy and proud that I had and was able to cast my vote.
My parents were one of the few early birds to cast the votes on that day. Unfortunately for them, the booth where they had to cast the votes had a malfunctioning electoral voting machine. I do understand that things could go wrong at the last minute and nothing is fool proof. But wondered how many of the electoral machines did not work on the D Day. Anyways, that was the reason they had still not come back home by the time I had got up. Finally someone had fixed the machine or brought in a new one. They cast their vote and came back after an hour. It was a holiday and I usually got up late from sleep on holidays. Sleep was always important to me. After finishing my breakfast, I walked to the election booth near my place. I did see that the police had put up a barricade near the school that served as the election booth and stopped people from driving their vehicles within a short radius.
I noticed how people (young and old alike) who lived just two streets away from the polling station did not walk to the booth. They came in their two wheelers. Vehicles have become a bane for the society we live in. People are so obsessed in going on a vehicle that they are not ready to walk for 10 to 15 minutes to a place. It was a holiday as well and all the shops were closed. There was no hurry to go back home. Why would you still not walk that short distance?
The queue to my polling booth was a little long. But I had no problem in waiting for my turn. That is when I noticed that many people where just not willing to wait. Indians in general are really bad in waiting in queues. Go to any place - shops, government offices, banks, temples, reservation counters to name a few. People always try to find ways to bypass the queues - any quick way by which they can get their work done immediately rather than waiting for their turn. There was a middle aged man standing in the queue for the last 20 minutes. Five minutes before he got his turn to enter, his young daughter and son walked in. He made way for them to get in the queue just before him. This is not an unusual scenario in India. His children did not even ask people if it was ok to join the queue or apologize for it. They did it as if it was their right to stand there.
Something else I had noticed was that most of the educated folks did not even take 2 minutes of their time to read the booth number on their voting sheet. They just came in there and then started asking people around on which was their booth. They did not even bother to read the notice printed on the door of every room that had the names of the streets that were included in that booth.
It seemed that people thought that there were doing a big favor for the country in casting their vote. And they had to be treated like royals for doing that. Everyone wore a bored look and wanted to just be done with it.
Well, after standing in the queue for 25 minutes, I was finally able to enter the room. I just hoped that they did not remove my name from the voter's list. And then voila, I finally cast my vote.
I walked back home feeling happy and proud that I had and was able to cast my vote.
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