We didn’t have the voter ID cards made, but we had voted in the last assembly elections for Karnataka (and it was a breeze back then - no hassles, no delays; also the parties had distributed the slips containing details beforehand, which was not the case this time). So our names were for sure in the electoral rolls. The key problem injected this time was the fact that the part no. or book number had changed and the old set had got distributed among 2 fresh sets of book numbers which created tremendous confusion. Everyone and his brother were busy searching for their names. A search of close to 2+ hours resulted in finally finding the names and a sigh of relief. I’ve got to get my voter ID card made sometime soon, but even those with cards had to face the same laborious searching process.
The entire electoral list outside the polling booth where the searches were being done was in Kannada here for the Yelahanka assembly constituency which falls under the Chikkaballapur constituency (some confusion here - apparently it's part of Bangalore North according to some - this is not true). Also guess what? Being illiterate in Kannada it was I who spotted the names although many others helped me search the list for my name; I was looking for a different alphabet, when someone I know informed me on the right Kannada alphabet and I figured it out (the ‘chi’ of Bag‘chi’) based on sheer pattern matching prowess!
The process can be made more streamlined to avoid chaos and the impatient ones don’t bother and just end up leaving without voting. I realized that it is all about persistence… Well I’ve got the mark on my left index finger and I exercised my right to vote again which sure feels good! Some adventure and headache that’ll help me remember the occasion of the Lok Sabha Elections, 2009… May the party I voted for (or the best one) win and come to power!
Addendum: Seems like I made the mistake of not checking the online electoral rolls. That has the details although the names are spelt wrong - Bhagji instead of Bagchi - all spellings messed up.
Anyways lesson learnt! And persistence pays!!! By the way quite a crowd here, perhaps because of the search delays! LINK: http://stg1.kar.nic.in/searchfinalroll_2009/
I'm glad you were persistent Shamit! I hope more people show such perseverance while voting!
ReplyDeleteHey star, maybe if you were more 'normal' and had learnt kannada sometime in the last 30 years, you wouldn't have had to bother about 'chi' :)
ReplyDeleteWell yes persistence pays Pritesh, and Karthik I knew this comment was coming .... ;)
ReplyDeleteIn my case:
ReplyDeleteWake up 9:00 am
Brush teeth and Get dressed 9:10 am
Vote 9:15 am
Back home and sleep 9:20 am
The fact that Yelahanka is a part of Chikballapur was not known to many ...
One curious question ... did you vote for the individual or the party ? ;)
Hahaaa good one Amith... and yes I voted for the 'party' in anycase.
ReplyDeleteThe turnout seems to be poor in BLR...in the range of 45 to 60% :-( Looks like people are not as persistent or enthusiastic as you are. Lots of people couldn't vote because their names are not in the list. Wonder what were they doing all these days.
ReplyDeleteBusyB (that's Bhagchi for you), choose Kannada as an elective in one of the quarters, under foriegn language :-)
Ha haaaa.... Foreign Language? Sukesh, hope you don't put the Kannada Cheluvali behind me to hunt me down! :D On a serious note with the kind of publicity we should have expected a bigger voter turnout - and better preparation from the officials too.
ReplyDeleteSB first thing we are doing from tomorrow is teaching you Kannada....:)
ReplyDeletei have been telling you to,learn read/write Kannada... okay na??
~Samaya
Great Samaya, I am ready to learn :) However, the problem is to make the electoral process better - people's names were missing too... case in point Kannada actress Ramya.
ReplyDelete