So I have cast my vote on 17th of April 2014. I had thought of going to the polling station, which is in a Government Primary School building, in the evening after the sun starts sliding towards the direction of Arabian Sea or in other words, towards West. Mangalore is now sweltering under extreme heat. I saw the digital barometer displayed at a vantage position in the downtown Mangalore reading as 41 Degree Celsius. The voting booths are mostly situated in Government Primary School buildings which I think Election Commission gets free of charge. It is besides the point.
I always enjoy exercising my constitutional right to elect my representative to the elected body- now it is Lok Sabha or Nation’s Parliament. India elects about 543 members from this vast country to represent the 1.20 billion population. One cannot forget that this country has several religions, languages, traditions, cultural diversities, behaviour differences, yet they are all Indians. At the time of election the whole country stands as one nation and accepts the directions/guidelines of the Election Commission. At other times, the very same people would have revolted against any such directions of the Government which they felt as “unwarranted intrusion into their personal liberty†But at the time of the election however mighty he be, the entire population subjects itself to the orders of the Election Commission. This shows that democracy has taken deep roots in this country. People want their representatives to be elected in an impartial manner without any external pressure or incentive.
While writing the glory of our election process, I completely forgot the point I was making. I said I enjoyed exercising my right to vote. In fact, I have been exercising this right since 1960, since the time I became qualified to vote. The venue for voting has been the same Government School. There is some significance for me in respect of that school. It is the same school where I had my primary education. The school was run at that time by the local Municipality. It was not great to be a student of that school. People used to look down upon the students of that school as mostly poor people used to send their children to this school. They would call it with different acronyms and none to be repeated with pride. But I liked that school. When one enters that school building, nostalgic memories of the past would flash back.
However though my idea was to go late in the afternoon, I changed my decision and I decided to go there early in the morning. When I was going to the school as a child I used to feel that I was entering a big building. and the steps of the school used to stare at me as I felt it was difficult to climb but now, I found I could reach the ground floor of the building with just one step forward. That is the transformation which that school has brought in me. When I went to study there even writing one Kannada alphabet was difficult but now writing hundreds of pages is not a task at all. This is the reason why I like to go back to that school which reminds me the development I have made in my life.
The system of voting was so simple. The Election Commission had already sent their representatives to each and every voter and given to him/her a slip of paper containing his photograph, house Number, place of voting and booth number. As you enter the polling place, there are people to guide you to the polling counter . There again it was a very smooth passage till you come out of the booth. Secrecy of voting was maintained by keeping a hard board cover to the EVM so that no one should see which button one presses.
I came out of the school building within ten minutes with a feeling that I was the boss, at least during those few seconds when one pressed the EVM button. So I also voted.
