The Great Indian Election and the 'Selfies' people

The great Indian Voting drama

April 30, 2014 – Just another day in my life. I probably wouldn’t even remember the day the next year, or even maybe the next month. So, before I forget (and probably to remember), this was the day I joined the huge bandwagon of people who decide the fate of the country. When I say ‘decide the fate of the country,’ I do not mean I will be taking decisions as to whom India can trade with or which country to go to war with. Instead, I just went and cast my vote for a leader who will be taking such decisions.

Frankly speaking, I wasn’t (am still not) a great follower of politics. I only knew the names of the bigwigs contesting in the elections since the last couple of months, I had only been reading various posts on my Facebook wall with half-baked knowledge on who the best leader for the country was. As the election date grew nearer, I did my bit. I researched on the leaders who were standing from my constituency, discussed here and there, overheard from here and there and finally I knew around 4-5 candidates for the Lok Sabha seat amongst the 30 odd and around 2-3 Assembly candidates and rounded upon the couple of people I’d be voting for.

And finally the big day arrived.

The sweltering summer heat has been tortuous over the past few days and hence I decided to wake up at 6:30 AM and be amongst the first people to vote (and also post my finger on Facebook). Alas! Over the past few years 7 AM became the new 10 AM and there were already a few people in the queue and the line began growing at an astonishing pace. Anyways, I was done with my voting (for the first ever time) by 7:30 AM and returned home with a sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t an easy vote to cast and I ended up voting for the most literate of the lot (Ssshh! I won’t be saying who lest I want my vote be invalid à la Naidu).

That's my vote :)

Before the D-Day, if there was a flood of posts about whom to vote, then the D-Day was a Tsunami. Inked fingers and posts like ‘Voted for a better India’, ‘Did my part’ and ‘#Vote4change’ became the norm of the day. People exulted like they’d won a war. While some went to work, others just sank into their couches on the national holiday. The much hyped about Election drama was over, with just the touch of a button. Despite all the hype and buzz generated, the polling percentage in the city just about crossed the 50% mark.

Venky, who had done a lot of campagining work on Facebook, finally casts his vote.

And then, inked fingers became photoshiopped inked fingers

May 01, 2014 - It was like yesterday never happened. The entire buzz about the Great Indian elections died down. Profile pictures changed again. Ink on the fingers were replaced by pouts on the faces and people went back to laughing at Jose Mourinho and applauding Cristiano Ronaldo. It will probably remain this way now for the next fortnight as we approach the end of the season in the Premier League and that the IPL has returned to India.

In exactly two weeks from today, on May 16, the election result date, I foresee my Facebook wall going bonkers again. Ecstasy and anguish will be the flavor of the day. There will be forecasts about where the country is headed in the next five years. The pessimists will just write off that the country is going down the gutter while there may be optimists who see a bright future. And there will be a bunch for whom it wouldn’t matter much (I wouldn’t want to speculate in which category I would fall in).

And then only a week after this, the world will be back to normal. People will live with the new leader, no matter how good or bad. And then Facebook can be used a media to vent out frustration about the state of affairs of the country.