Kerala and Tamil Nadu people have their judgement sealed in the strong rooms of electoral offices across states. Behind this goes a dedicated hard work of thousands of officials who run this process. For the first time i could feel their pain, as I was the part of the process. My maiden journey through this electoral process had its ups and downs.
With the rising sun on the horizon, I embarked on my journey, well it was my first experience. Early morning, Me and my colleague set out for Reception Center (that’s what they called it). It took us one hour of biking through the long winding road to reach our destination. All through out this adventurous ride I had mised my bike. I thought, I would drive my bike here someday.
We reached the center well ahead of time and by that time it was all chaos. People searching for their team mates and their booth numbers. I accidentally called on my team lead and met some other guy instead. He was short and stout with hairs half gone and half cared like a treasure. I began to follow him. Then my team lead called me and asked , “dude where are you?” I said, “right behind you”. “but i can’t see you, come to PS no. 150”. I then realised I was following the wrong person. Running to the place he mentioned, I met my team lead. Now this was Original person 😀 No mistake this time. In fact when I was following the other guy, I had my doubts. Coz, the person who I had to follow was some lecturer in Engineering college and the guy I was following didn’t look by any way like a lecturer. When I saw him I thought, he must be some time pass lecturer. Any way, four of us gathered at the place assigned and then began the long arduous wait. At around 1200 hrs we collected our materials and sorted it out. Checked and checked again and cross checked again. I observed, everything in the list was mentioned slightly higher than what actually was given to us. Bloody middle men!
Our team and 5 other teams were given a bus, police enforcement per booth and a route officer. After all the teams were done with their cross checking we were led to our destinations. It wasn’t far from the town, only 10 km from the station. lucky us! we were alongside the main road and had few hotels to satiate our empty stomach. Fortunately the center we were assigned had all basic amenities clean toilets, bathroom, running water. What more one needs! The only bad thing was, we were not suppose to use our mobile phones and since there were no plug points, my mobile was already dead by the time we reached the center.
Then began another struggle. There were no electric connection and the Village officer and the welfare team were on the blame game, shedding their responsibility. “Sir, how do you suppose me to look after 40 polling stations?” WTH ! Why did you take the responsibility then, I thought. Any way after the pass the buck story, He arranged for the lighting minus the fan. We then set to arrange the classroom like a polling booth and arranged all the papers required to submit. Then followed the dinner at a nearby dhaba. The cartoon sheets, which I brought from the center, came handy as our bed. We spent the night gazing stars. It was an awesome night. Clear sky, bright moon and the thousands of twinkling stars made us oblivious of the miseries of the day.
This post is inspired by Charlie, my blog buddy. It’s been 3 days since we exchanged greetings, but seems we know each other since ages. I am not praising him all because he has dedicated an entire post to me. But the very idea of writing this post, came from him. His post “How I learned french German and Spanish?” covers his entire journey of life till date. So I dedicate this post to Charlie 🙂
It was a long wait. I waited for you since 24th december and still waiting.
Dear Santa
I know , you would be very busy and you must have tried coming to my place in Kerala. I was almost trying to locate your carriage on news reports, but to my dismay, this time none of the news channels covered your itinerary. They must be busy reporting for Raja or Nira or some one unfortunate who would have fell into some well. Barkha is busy thinking about handsome Pakistani men, economic times is still obsessed with radia and rest are cursing “Tees Maar Khaan“, save Farah and akshay. No body has time to click you.
I am writing you this letter, coz I heard a girl in america was tracking you, like me. And you came with Michelle Obama to give toys. did you shipped my gifts through FedEx? But, I have not received them yet. did you addressed it correctly? You should have used google to locate me. They often ask and bore me with latitude and longitude. This time it might have been useful. Facebook… yes. add me to you Facebook i shall send you message err..mail err m confused. Anyway i will send you a sweet tweet.
I forgot to ask you one thing. How do you come all the way from north. your reindeer must be going through rough time, na?. I heard ice is melting at north pole. They say world is getting hotter, but you know, north india is freezing. My parents and my kid brother is not feeling good . Can you change temperature there. My mom says you can do anything. She has prepared christmas recipes for entire family and you. She also helped me to decorate my room with bells. Christmas music is playing out loud. When you come, give me a phone call. I wonder, how would you sound, “this is god calling” or “ this is santa at you door“. Not the later one … you would sound like a pizza guy. Santa you know, I love pizza with toppings. But, today I didn’t eat… why?… you didn’t come, naa !
Sunday morning… Chennai never used to have such nice weather at least not when i was here for two years for my post-grad. This was absolutely fine Sunday morning… a cool breeze and sky was cast with cloud… i called for a taxi… get me to Hotel Benz Park…It’s in T Nagar,
Image by mckaysavage via Flickr
…anna u know na ! I sounded like i was lot familiar about Chennai… Though TNagar was next to my college at Nungambakkam but I never had the opportunity to stroll on these roads… I knew few places in Tnagar and very few roads through which i used to go to my friend’s place in Tambram. By the time it started pouring. And you never know where in Chennai you get struck into traffic after rains.
It was nice (Okie, I did not expect to have our stay arrangements here). Room was double sharing and already somebody had checked in… I was the second guy and had few reservations about this first guy …
hi myself Rajiv, from Kerala… Hello I am Vikas from Hyderabad..(after a long pause he asked)… are you a malayali ? No no, I am posted there… Thank god… maine socha kaun aayega room mae ( thank God, i was wondering who will come to my room ) …Vikas said with a broad grin on his face. And I settled in peacefully. We were wondering as to are we the only two people staying here or has some one come? We inquired at the reception… No sir, two more people have come… they are staying in room no 403…Ok.. Thanks!
Morning, we reached restaurant downstairs in time. I just went about picking idli, chutney and Paneer paratha… kya yaar yahan bhi idli..Vikas lost his interest in breakfast …
Image via Wikipedia
At lounge we found, Syamlal, Naveen, Saraswathy, Sharda, Saumya, Ashwin, Sujilesh and Preteesh waiting for the cab.
It took us about an hour to cut across Chennai Traffic to reach Training Center in Tenympet near SIET College.
It was unusual, seemed like I was back in MBA classes, with a difference. Here at the RTC (Regional Training Center), the day started with a prayer (from an old Hindi movie “Ankush”-1986)
“ Itni shakti hame dena data…manka vishwas kamjor ho na… ham chale nek raste pe hamse… bhool kar bhi koi bhool ho naaa…” Check Out this Video for the prayer…
Krazy Memoirs 