Mera Desh Mahaan!
I received a post from the Election Commissioner's office yesterday to secure my voter-identification card. Religiously, I set out today morning to the mentioned place to get my picture taken and complete other formalities for obtaining the card.
I armed myslef with a couple of big books, my ipod and of course my cell (stop looking incredulously! Yes, I did take along a mini entertainment station with me cause I expected that I will be spending almost the whole day there!)
The venue was a Corporation Community centre which I never knew existed. As expected, the building was located in a seedy part of the town with a musty, stale air about it, replete with pan-stained walls and piles of rotting garbage nearby.
Resigning myself to fate and muttering a hundred curses about the government, the people and their civic sense, I walked in...
Surprise! Surprise! No chaos. No jostling and screaming people. No indifferent, half sleeping officers. Instead an efficient and controlled calm greeted me. I was guided to one of the many counters and joined the tail of a long but brisk-moving queue. Computers, web cams, printers and other paraphanelia were set up behind each counter. The modern computers looked totally out of place in the rundown building...but nevertheless, isn't this what India is all about?!! The 'yo generation' of yuppies who wean directly from mother's milk to coke and pepsi co exist with the doe-eyed gaun ki kudi. The filthy rich who flaunt their 24 carat rocks to the miserably poor whose lives are down the rocks. The highly educated babus to the illiterate. The sky scrapers to the slums. This is the only place where a sleek BMW will feel completely at ease standing next to a bullock cart waiting for the signal.
Ok, enough of digression, back to the point...I found it hard to come to terms with the fact that officers manning the counters were wide wake, efficient and pleasant to the junta!!! In 20 mins flat, I had my documents verified, picture taken, card printed and laminated! Can you believe that?!!!
India is truly shining :-)
I armed myslef with a couple of big books, my ipod and of course my cell (stop looking incredulously! Yes, I did take along a mini entertainment station with me cause I expected that I will be spending almost the whole day there!)
The venue was a Corporation Community centre which I never knew existed. As expected, the building was located in a seedy part of the town with a musty, stale air about it, replete with pan-stained walls and piles of rotting garbage nearby.
Resigning myself to fate and muttering a hundred curses about the government, the people and their civic sense, I walked in...
Surprise! Surprise! No chaos. No jostling and screaming people. No indifferent, half sleeping officers. Instead an efficient and controlled calm greeted me. I was guided to one of the many counters and joined the tail of a long but brisk-moving queue. Computers, web cams, printers and other paraphanelia were set up behind each counter. The modern computers looked totally out of place in the rundown building...but nevertheless, isn't this what India is all about?!! The 'yo generation' of yuppies who wean directly from mother's milk to coke and pepsi co exist with the doe-eyed gaun ki kudi. The filthy rich who flaunt their 24 carat rocks to the miserably poor whose lives are down the rocks. The highly educated babus to the illiterate. The sky scrapers to the slums. This is the only place where a sleek BMW will feel completely at ease standing next to a bullock cart waiting for the signal.
Ok, enough of digression, back to the point...I found it hard to come to terms with the fact that officers manning the counters were wide wake, efficient and pleasant to the junta!!! In 20 mins flat, I had my documents verified, picture taken, card printed and laminated! Can you believe that?!!!
India is truly shining :-)
posted by Archana at 3:20 PM
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