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
12 Comments:
nice....now i know why you plan to do what you plan to do!!!!
@ adi: uh?!!...lol...Shhhh! :D
I also wanna get those cards.. I vote using my Driving license as an ID
@ abhi: yea, get the card asap! the best thing about it is that the ur photo in it actually resembles u :)...not like the resurrected-from-the-dead pic in the driving license!
Archana,
its nice you got ur card but dont forget to vote on May 11th.
Your observation is very true.
flithy rich and slum all live in the same place..thats india.
Dont forget to VOTE.
yeah me yet to have one. but last time i voted with ration card.
@ Nirmal: Yea, will definitely vote. Actually looking forward to it! my first vote :)
nice.... but i got mine in 5 min flat
and i dont think a few modern computers and alert cops gonna shine india.. you need much more ...
i love playing the critic.....
@ duco ergo sum :
lol...agreed...but being the compulsive optimist, i cant but extrapolate the computers n alert officers to a better,shining india :)
Watch your spellings...thats paraphernalia
Hey,
I hope you are in Madras. I got here yesterday and found out that NO ONE is here. They're all off doing something or the other as if their lives are more important than mine. Email me at firstname.lastname@gmail.com.
Please!
Anand.
Have u ever gone to R.T.O office ?
If yes , please do write one. I ll write one soon .
Hi Archana,
Wonderfully written. Yes, the elections are conducted quite well these days, but then that also depends on the locality you live. Not so sure, how they are conducted in the muncipal areas where booth capturing is still a reality.
Nice post anyway, especially liked the play on words using 'rocks'.
Keep it going :)
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