on Friday, April 24, 2009
The government girl’s school in the corner of thirteenth cross is idyllically romantic, especially on rain washed mornings like yesterday. This school is usually a picture of chaos on normal days, with gaggle of girls, walking in groups or standing in groups near yellow phone booths, or surrounding the array of hawkers who seem to materialize there every evening. All this seems to have completely clouded the old world charm and the simple beauty of this place. As we walked in, to cast our votes, I remembered how many summers ago, I learnt to cycle in the grounds of the very same school. I could still feel the exhilaration I felt back then, on gaining perfect balance and riding off into the road (very complan ad-ish , I know). The ground which is actually overgrown with unwanted shrubs is now enclosed with ugly green fences, which was absent. At the booth we were greeted by neighbors, with a grinning acknowledgment of my pyjama condition and P aunty to my sudden embarrassment asks amma ‘ yenri maGlige moog chuchisbitidira’ . The school seemed to have too much historyand it felt just right to vote in this cobweb filled place with dusty brown desks piled up against the wall. I spent the rest of the day watching TV, the usual election frenzy still hasn’t gripped me, and the media seems to have realized that Indian elections is a major selling point, fact I think which was almost unacknowledged till 2004, when a select few of us would secretly enjoy the hidden pleasures of it.

1 comments:

Merin Mandanna said...

:) Nice read!
(should've replied with something nasty to can't-mind-my-own-business aunty!)

I,by the way, couldn't vote because my name was MISSING. :| Not on the electoral list, not on the deleted list. SO annoying.
:(