I had no intention to do so…but somehow ended up doing it …in my third attempt this morning…clad in the usual embarassing short shorts and reebook jersey, sipping chai on pali hill, i realised the St. Annes polling booth is open…being the politicophobic ignoramus i am, i had not really bothered to check my voting slip…something made me walk across…someone at the desk informed me rizvi college is a better bet…attempt 1 over…
somehow…i gave it attempt 2…this time a slightly more tolerant school teacher at rizwi (not a dadisa type aunt giving me dirty looks for the skin show)…politely told me i can walk in with a drivers licence and expect them to dig out my voter numbre….there is a voter number eh…live and learn…attempt 2 over….
walking up the steps at home, thought ill look into my post box once more..lo behlod..the jerk who had deliverd the slips had not done it correctly…i could see something stuck at teh top that had not followed in….turned out to be my voter slip…back to rizwi…attempt 3…drivers license still carries marine drive address so i was sure tehy would find a way to make that a national threat and stop me…somehow they didnt…i pressed the button next to the hand and walked out with a stained finger…hmmmm….
I am still drifting…ambling…havent figured out who or what i care about … some things are clear to all of us…i would do anything for a close friend…i will always overpay for services anyone renders… i dont know about god but i will always thank him if he takes care of a loved one when there was no help at hand…things like that are easy..but what do i hope for in life, for myself, fro my city, my country, for this world…gosh i have no clue…i havent yet woken up sid….so without trying to dissect too much …i think i just know one political party since i grew up … and thats the congress..from Indira Gandhi, to Rahul Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi….i was playing chor police hiding in a chowk when i heard Indira Gandhi had been assassinated….i had no real clue what that meant but that was the only political memory i retained from that age…when I saw a red, handsome Rajiv Gandhi at nariman point from hardly twenty meteres away, minglign unabashedly with people well poasdtd his security cordon..evn as a kid…something impressed me….and when we heard the news early morning of his assassination…i dont know why but i cried…my dad also cried..we all cried..im sure my dad knew why he did…i had no clue…i just cried…
all these years…i havent watched cricket and yuvis six sixes that i walked into inadvertently at a baskin store brought cricket back to my world…similarly…somehow rahul gandhi has brought politics back to me…even if ever so slkightly…no valid reason..no mature analysis…just sentiment…
and koi doodh main nahin dhula hai….htere is no wrong or right…i guess not much to vote for…congress or otherwise…but these guys…they at least look like a party to me…they look like educated people with an education behind them, a roof over their head, food in their stomach…and everything else that they are doing driven by something higher…even if its lust for power, money, ..i dont know what..it still seems higher..
higher than people who seem hungry and desperate for alms….who seem like they will do anything to get their daily meal…even if it means making fodder of the country…i see advani, modi…i see the fathers of terrorism and hatred…I see the various senas and…the less said the better…frankly in absence of any otehr abiilty to judge a party or its leader, i think ill vote for someone who i wouldnt mind sharing a cup of tea with simply because he seems like someone i can relate to … who might talk technology and science to me, open teh door for a lady, wait at a signal….enjoy a good game of crciket and maybe a crappy bollywood movie…i cant think of anyone i could hsare that cup of tea with today…except Rahul….good luck chief….
How does it feel !?