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The Truant Tales

Expect nothing. And I'll live upto it.

Posts tagged with "politics"

Election Day

Thursday, 23. April 2009, 07:48:16



I Voted!


That's my bedaubed finger!

After some last minute scrambling, and a lot of entreating, I found my name on the electoral roll ( They butchered my name, and was under the wrong area, but it's better than nothing). After more entreating, I was able to obtain a duplicate ID card, and hence, VOTE.

I was extremely impressed by the voting system. You go in, they direct you to a room, put indelible ink on your left index finger, you press a button and voila, you've helped a corrupt politician become richer. In five minutes you come out with the 'mark of democracy'. A bit dramatic, but I'm excited.

The EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) had about 15 symbols, ranging from the lotus, hand, to briefcase, kite, and even a spectacle.

The voting place, a school in this case, is like a carnival. Everyone wore smiles, even the guards with the terrifyingly big guns. As you make your way to the school, there are canvassers, screaming sweet nothings into the ears of the voters. 'Free Power', 'Free money', 'Free DTH' and one guy even told me 'Free VoIP'. Being a liberal, I had already made up my mind, even though the VoIP offer sounded great.

6 comments

I'm Back

Tuesday, 10. March 2009, 13:04:53

, , ,


Read the title in Arnold's accent. Sounds Cooler.

Anyway, I'm back to the online world - back to the world of spam, inane status messages and useless twitters.

The rail wheel factory project was hastily completed, at last. Whoopee! We had to fudge a lot of numbers, the design seems totally flawed and it can barely even increase production if implemented. That's what you get when you give a factory design project to a bunch of 3rd year mechanical students. The amazing part though, and the most shocking part, was that the project in-charge took 30 secs to peruse through our 60 page project (A month's work of slacking), scratched his chin a bit ('The government official in thought' look) and then declared that this was a very good project!

Almost immediately after the end of the project, the sixth semester started. This is the worst semester for mechanical students, ever (Deja Vu. I'm pretty sure I said the same about the last semester). It's a semester of subjects like; Finite Elemental Analysis, Mechanical Vibrations, Theory of Elasticity, Design of Machine Elements II, Heat Mass Transfer and Mechatronics (Yup, we're soo advanced that we have to make up words).

So, to deal with the hopelessness of this semester, a bunch of friends decided to go to Pondicherry and get drunk. It was a three day vacation. Pondicherry is a beautiful place, really clean, especially the French Quarter.


The promenade

I don't remember most of it. Time seemed to fly by, the place seemed unfocused and the ground unsteady. 'Beer - the root and solution to life's problems' - Homer J.

Life's a bitch and here's more proof: It took me a long time to get my voter's ID card. Then life steals it away. The dates for Election 2009 are announced and I can't vote (it's a pain to get the duplicate, and most likely, I won't get it on time). To quote the incumbent, inefficient, incoherent, unintelligent state government - 'It's a conspiracy by the opposition'. Those bastards, I won't have the pleasure of electing them out of office.

10 comments

A very long day

Monday, 24. November 2008, 13:39:59

This is a follow-up to this post.

Today, on the persistent urging of mother (bordering on nagging), I stood in the seemingly never-ending line for the election ID card. I stood in the queue at 11:00. And surrounded by chatty strangers, time seemed to stand still. At 12:30 I reached the counter, but as fate would have it, the counter closed for lunch. 'Come at 2:30', the man at the counter said brusquely.

I was indignant. The cruel face of bureaucracy had reared its ugly head. Grudgingly and constantly muttering expletives under my breath, I walked away, returning back at 2:30 sharp. Fortunately, this was a shorter queue. But, as is typical Indian behaviour, women elbowed past me, old men elbowed past me, office-goers cut in line, and practically everyone behind me took advantage of my timidity (arising from my inability to bellow at them in Kannada). After an hour and a half of waiting, I took the serial number and stood in another line to get my photo taken.

I had to wait for another half hour (4:30,if anyone is keeping count). I sat down in front of the officer, and stared with absolute shock at my details on the computer. My name was altered from a typical Indian name to something from Star Trek. They butchered Dad's name too. After correcting all the minor details, it was time for the photograph to be taken.

'Stare at the web camera', the officer said coldly.
'Which one is it?', I queried.
'All right, I've already taken the photograph. Please wait outside. Your ID card will be laminated and issued in 5 minutes'
'But, I didn't even look at the....'
'I said wait for your ID to come', the officer interjected angrily, his eyes hiding a sort of demonic fury.

That 'five minutes' turned out to be a half hour wait. I stood outside, in the chilling wind and slight drizzle, constantly peeping into the room for any sign of my card. Then, from the lamination machine, the attender removed a bunch of shiny cards and headed for the door, headed towards the anxious public waiting outside. There in his hand was an object that would validate my role as a citizen, as a participant in this glorious democracy, by conferring on me the right to vote. Like an apparition, this attender seemed to glide towards us slowly - my eyes continued its fixed gaze on the cards, with a sort of avaricious need.

An almost inaudible 'ting' rang out from the room. The attender, to our dismay, dropped the cards on a table near the door. 'Tea Break, people. Come after 20 minutes' .

That was the tipping point. The crowd turned hostile, threatening to turn into a raging mob. They clamoured
menacingly for the cards. Expletives were screamed; even the docile 80 year old lady standing beside me indulged in this insanity. The attender was taking aback, and in haste (fuelled, obviously, by fear) he distributed the cards with an efficiency unseen from any government worker.

At last, at 5:00, I had the voters ID in my hand. I scanned it scrupulously, observing its every little detail. The picture was horrible; it captured an animated face - taken while I was still talking to the officer. But, the name was correct.The age - correct. The date of birth - woefully wrong. The address - D'oh, wrong again. It's just a software glitch, they said, fill out another form and submit it another day to obtain the corrected ID card.

As I reflect back on the day, I can't help but feel angry, as if cheated of my fundamental right by the inefficiencies of a sluggish government bureaucracy. And is it all worth it? my cynicism asked. The ruling political party bows down to any sort of pressure, the opposition openly cavorts with Hindu terrorists, and the others aren't even worth a second thought.

3 comments

A crazy, angry yet rational tirade

Thursday, 18. September 2008, 06:33:27

I didn't get to vote in the 2008 state election. AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENS when you don't vote. You get an idiot running the state.

BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party - The Indian Public Party) is a right wing Hindu fanatical organization. This is the party that initiated the Indo-US nuclear Deal in 2003, but the moment they lost power they started opposing the same deal as 'Anti-Indian'. Hypocrites. They instigated the demolition of 'Babri Masjid', stood by and probably also instigated the 'Gujarat Riots' and more recently gave a 'letter of support' to a Hindu terrorist organization called Bajrang Dal who are currently on a rampage against Christians.

After the 2008 state elections in Karnataka, the BJP government came into power here and are already messing things up with such efficiency that its shocking.

1) The Chief Minister doesn't stay in the official residence because it's not Vaastu compliant. Instead, he stays near my house and is a nuisance to all. The roads are blocked every time he returns home.
2) The party recently completed 100 days in office. They threw such a grand party, release hundreds of Ads in papers proclaiming their greatness. It featured the Chief minister giving the thumbs up like the crazy narcissist in those country club ads. 'Swoosh'. That's the sound of our tax money being flushed down the drain.
3) Bajrang Dal (a bunch of illiterate trolls) attacked churches as they alleged 'forcible conversions'. The government just sat back, did nothing, opting instead to criticize the church. They would rather take the word of a bunch of raging hooligan's over a few docile nuns.
4) The government is using Narendra Modi as its poster boy for the fight against terrorism. Modi is the vilest guy in Indian Politics (and there are a lot of nasties in Indian politics). He justified the killing of Muslims during the Gujarat riots. He shoots first and then asks questions, that is, only if you're Muslim. His human rights record is abysmal. If he had his way, he could make Guantamano Bay look like a Country Club spa.
5) Barely two months after coming into power, a whole lot of ministers went to America and Britain. According to my cousin who was present in the meeting there 'they had got a huge entourage consisting of family, friends and concubines'. Is that a crackling sound? That's the sound of our tax money burning.
6) In their manifesto, the party promised to take a strict stand against corruption. How the hell are they going to do that when most of the cabinet ministers are filthy millionaire. Blood money got from illegal mining.

I could go on and on, but I'm burning up and my lips quiver in anger. I better sign off before I damage the keyboard.

4 comments

Politics

Sunday, 25. May 2008, 07:55:11

,

In 2004, Karnataka State elections, None of the three parties got a simple majority, i.e neither BJP,Congress or JD(s) got 50% of the votes.

So BJP and JD(S) formed a coalition, with the agreement that for the first 20 months, the JD(S) chooses the chief minister and then for the next 20 months, the BJP chooses the chief minister.

After the first 20 months, when it was their turn to hand over power to the BJP, JD(S) told the BJP to suck a duck and broke off the agreement. The BJP cried 'traitor!!'

A week later, JD(S) said 'ok. We want power.', and offered to re-form the coalition with BJP. Already betrayed once, one would think that BJP would be thinking in the lines of 'once bitten twice shy'. But NO. The lure of power is a bit too much for this party of seldom thinking mammals. The coalition was re-formed and this time the BJP got to choose the chief minister.

Two days later, JD(S) said 'Naah. This is not working for us. See you later, alligator' and called off the coalition. again. The BJP cried 'traitor!!'. again.

The entire episode was termed as 'Nataka in Karnataka', meaning Drama in Karnataka.

The sad state of Indian politics.

By the way, I couldn't vote in the 2008 State elections that were held recently. They had entered my name wrong in the voters list (sounded like a transvestite rapper name). And when I submitted the form to correct the name, they promptly deleted the name from the list. :cry:. Shocking that even though I was an Indian citizen above 18 years I couldn't vote, but the watchman who is a Nepali citizen got to vote with no problem absolutely.

The sad state of Indian electoral rolls.

1 comment

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