LOGICAL DICHOTOMIES: AN INTERESTING TAKE

It has been more than a couple of weeks that I have been having a churning of multiple thoughts for putting my pen to paper (finger to the keyboard, rather). And I was simply devoid of any ideas. Today is the first day of the Bengali New Year 1421 and as we say Shubho Noboborsho, I thought why not try and make an attempt. And what better place than a peaceful chair at 35000 ft above MSL, up in the air.

I started blogging in 2006 with an account of my experiences of going back to school at the ripe young age of 30. 6 months down the line, I started another blog to capture the experiences and happenings with a new arrival in the family. The first blog ended as I finished the school after a year. So started two new blogs to capture my thoughts: one on cooking and the other was for "rest of the nonsense in my mind". Fortunately I have been able to somehow maintain these, though with extremely sporadic updates.

Now that I have crossed the initial cold feet of writing a post, let me come to my story for the day. I like to talk and I do that with multiple variety and cross section of people as, when and whom come across. I like to know people and experience their thought process. These days the flavour in this part of the world (and I am sure in many parts of the Western world), are the general elections, Mr Narendra Modi (NaMo) and Mr Rahul Gandhi (RaGa). And no this is not about NaMo or RaGa. This is about the conversation I had with the gentleman driving the car on my way to the airport. He is a frequent service provider for my journeys to and from the airport and keeps sharing his anecdotes / thoughts. As usual we got talking and we ended up to the flavour of the season - elections. And he had an interesting lot of dichotomies to share. As per him that NaMo is going to win the elections is a given; India needs a strong administrator. But Sir, Congress is the oldest party in India and they know the Indian political game inside out. RaGa will have an edge. I responded that RaGa has hardly any experience and is bumbling. He retorts that RaGa has the experienced team at his disposal and when a team is good, it is always the Captain who gets the credit. And then he posed a dichotomy, in Maharashtra, the current incumbent has drained and spoilt the state and will have no chance to get back to power (Incidentally the state is being run by the same party as at the centre). The conditions become further complex. He comes up with another observation. The local leader of his area (belonging to the incumbent party) has been in position for almost 20 years. So I ask him what does he do to garner that kind of long term support. He shares that the leader has lot of empathy for people of his constituency. If there is a marriage and he is invited, he will make it a point to visit even if it is for 10 mins. In this part of the world, that makes a huge difference. If there is a death in the family, he will be there at the head of the pall bearers. If the bereaved family do not have the resources, he provides. And then comes the punch. One month before elections, he starts a community lunch home, providing ample delicacies, twice a day. And he ends the session with "sir, still it will be NaMo"; and the oft repeated repartee these days "Ab ki baar Modi Sarkar" (this time it is the govt of Modi).

And I come to the moot question playing in my mind. What drives the Indian electorate? In developed economies (read Western countries) do you see such dichotomies? How much does the development plank and GDP growth rate really matter for the people at the lower base of the pyramid? And as the juggernaut of NaMo and RaGa rolls across the country in the pre-electoral drive, I am eagerly waiting for the verdict on 16 May when the election results will be announced.

This post was not about the Indian elections or the electoral strategy. That requires a separate treatise, which I am frankly not equipped to write. This was more an attempt to capture the simplicity with which people with much less educational degrees perceive life and analyse the trends. That the requirement of life can be so basic, may be astounding to many. But then that is how life is, in the vast GDP growth machine called India.

Pursuit of the Franchise

Me and wife have finally been successful in getting ourselves registered as “voters” for the current parliamentary elections. But the pursuit of this goal has been long and interesting .

Our pursuit of the franchise started way back in 2003. Being in the Armed Forces, we were sent forms from the Headquarters in New Delhi. Everyone had to fill up the forms and send them back for taking up with the Election Commission. A part of it was to be sent to your representative in the hometown. We did all that, my father went to the local electoral office and tried to register our name, but nothing happened. The entire exercise turned out to be a damp squib with lot of wastage of precious government money and bales of paper and of course increasing the carbon footprint drastically.

Inspite of the uselessness, the incident triggered my father to continuously pursue me to get myself registered as a voter and get myself an EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card or the Voter’s Card). While he started on the primary premise that it is an important and valid identity proof, I countered that my Armed Forces Identity Card and Passport was good enough. He was smart. He changed his tack and chided me no end that being a responsible citizen of the country I cannot afford to be lackadaisical about something as important as exercising my franchise. His efforts came to a peak when the West Bengal state election machinery swung into action in 2005. Forms were taken, couriered to Mumbai with clarifications and important places to be filled up marked in pencil. We (me, my wife and sister) filled up the form, prepared the certificates required and sent it back. My father dutifully deputed my mom to deposit the form. The photo clicking session was on in phases and it coincided with our visit home. So I had no option but to visit the local school which was the epicenter of activity. One old, typically Bong Govt babu saw my slip and asked me to go to someone else. The next babu saw the slip and gave me a thick bunch of papers and directed with the well known gruffness “find out if your name is there”. After scanning a few sheets, suddenly I spotted my grandmother’s name followed by my parents and sister. But the list didn’t have me or my wife on it!! On pursuing it with the babu regarding how everyone but we are there, we had this interesting conversation:

Babu: Why are you trying to register now when you are 28 years old?
Me: I have been studying outside and have been serving in the Armed Forces since I completed my studies. I tried registering for the postal ballot last time but nothing happened.
Babu: Then if you have not felt the need to register to vote in the last 10 years, why are you bothering now. Go to the district headquarters and try your luck there.

I was flummoxed. But I was not cowed down. Next I went to the District Headquarters and it turned out to be an experience in being shunted from one desk to another. And that was enough for me to give up any attempts to exercise my franchise.

Cut to 2008.

NGOs and groups have been highly active and I came across the mass campaign by Tata tea – Jaago Re. Registering on the website was a cake walk with the exact address for form submission provided on the electronic form generated by the website. With all proof documents, photographs and the forms, I went to the designated office. People were courteous and helpful. The form was accepted, another guy checked it out on his computer database and gave me the relevant ID nos and it was done! I was still skeptical as the last couple of weeks my searches on the Maharashtra Election Commission website was coming to naught. And then yesterday I saw that my name was there. So yippee! We are finally going to vote. And we are excited.

Those of you who think the pursuit has ended are a little mistaken. Our names have some hilarious errors. My name has now my father’s name as my middle name and it is going to be an exercise to convince that we do not use our father’s name as our middle name. My father in law has been changed from Subhendu Bhusan Dasgupta to someone called Subhendu Ghosh and my wife has now become Devasree Subhendu Ghosh! Ofcourse getting this corrected would be much easier. Thanks to technology and changing mindsets.

So let’s go vote and be part of the choice!