just like that

Come May 8, yet another assembly election will happen in TamilNadu and yet again, it will most probably be the AIADMK or the DMK combine which will come to power. I was talking to a couple of my friends the other day and they all sounded pessimistic about the whole process. They were lamenting the fact that how neither of the parties had done anything for the development of the state. They said there was no point in voting.

Although there is some truth in whatever they said, I don't think shying away from voting is the right thing to do. It is not just a democratic right; it is the duty of each and every citizen to vote. I believe most of the educated people do nothing but complain about the Government policies (or the lack of it), but shy away from voting at the time of elections. Then what right do these people have to complain? The real voting is done by the poor and illiterate of the country who are swayed by the false promises made by the politicians. It is little wonder then that most of the manifestos include promises of free TV, rice at 2 Rs etc. The real development issues never gain importance.

Iam not asking people to vote for someone they don't like; rather there is an option of not supporting any party but still exercising your vote. Under the 1961 Election Rules, Section 49-o provides the voter the option of registering that he doesn't wish to vote for anyone. However, this needs to be expressed at the time of voting in the booth and not before. The problem of course is that this is first of all not known to many people. Even many officers at the election booths are not aware of this. Since no party is going to publicise this aspect of voting, it is up to the election commission to make the voter aware of it. Of course, the additional problem is that the present Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) don’t have a button where the voter can register this. So this needs to be registered with the election officer at the booth which once again raises the question of secrecy of ballot. When the voter's choice of party at time of voting is kept confidential, people argue that even this must be confidential.

However, despite all the problems, this type of voting is useful for two reasons
1. When u want to vote but don't like any of the candidates
2. when the percentage of voters who have voted under 49-o is greater than the percentage of voters of the winning candidate, the election commission calls for re-election in the constituency and none of the candidates who stood initially can stand as they have already been rejected by the voters.

We can just imagine the situation even if it happens even in one constituency - The otherwise busy media will focus all its attention on this and as a result, 49-0 will get wide spread publicity. Political parties will be more concerned about whom they are nominating in every constituency, probably resulting in better candidates. I am not saying this will create a revolution, but we can at least try. A social awareness movement has been started in TamilNadu by Gnani (a renowned writer and thinker) and a few others who are now spreading this message by distributing pamphlets on all buses leaving Chennai to various parts of TamilNadu. The initial response, they say, has been very encouraging. Their web-link is
http://www.keetru.com/ohpodu/index.html

My request to everyone who have read so far is this - Please exercise your vote. It is something you owe to yourself and your country. If you are not satisfied with the candidates, still exercise your vote under 49-o. Spread this awareness to your friends and family. Let this election set a trend for the years to come!

Radio Mirchi, Bangalore went on air yesterday and being a summer intern here, I had the opportunity to be part of their historic moment. The first song played was A.R.R.'s “Vande Mataram" and the first jock-talk that followed it went something like:

“The time is six minutes past 8 PM
The date is 17th April 2006
The place is Bangalore
and India's No.1 Radio station, Radio Mirchi is here!!!
(Loud cheers in the background)
Radio Mirchi 93.3 FM, Sakkath Hot Maga”

I was one among those standing in the studios and giving those loud cheers. It was an emotional moment for many of them as their months of hard work finally bore fruition. They have a challenging few months ahead as they try to establish themselves in the third biggest media market in the country.

All the best Radio Mirchi. Rock on!!!

The most important part of any residential program is the hostel life. so having completed one year of my PGDM program, I thought of reflecting at the life that has been in our hostel.

First day on campus was pretty intriguing for me. I was simply lost in the maze of rooms and had a tough time finding my room while coming back from lunch and evening tea. Even as I was just settling down into my room nicely, a new allocation of rooms came. I was shifted to the "A" block top floor(ATF). I had heard lots of stories about the particular block. This was the only block where there were girls on the ground floor and first floor with guys occupying the top floor. Also it was a bit distant from the other three blocks, so people were saying that u will be cut off from the main action and all such stuff.

Highly apprehensive and completely unwilling I moved my entire stuff to my new room. Even as I was approaching the room, I saw a vaguely familiar face. Yes, this was the guy whom I had seen at the "TIME" classes in Mumbai. As it turned out by a strange coincidence,four of the five guys from our TIME classes who made it to IIM Indore occupied consecutive rooms. Pawan - 307, Wayne - 309, Raj - 310 and me - 311(308 was the common tv room).

The striking thing as far as our hostel life goes are the birthdays. At exactly 12 in the midnight, all of us goto the birthday boy's room, make some customary wishes and then the real fun starts. The birthday bums were first given to the birthday boy and depending on the mood of the guys, to some other people. Maggo was the one guy who always got bums irrespetive of whose birthday it was.Can't help feeling for the poor guy but I do enjoy seeing him getting kicked:) After the bums, the birthday boy is taken outside the mess wherien the 'kumbabishekha' starts. To begin with, a few eggs are broke on the guy's head. This is followed by pouring of sauce,pepsi,coffee... After sometime, it becomes a free for all - almost anything that people find will become a decorative ornament on the victim. Dahi, atta powder, vegetable peels, left over mess food were some of the add-ons observed during the year. Finally, the slaugtered goat is allowed to go and have a bath after a chorus of "happy birthday" song. The whole thing is great fun to watch unless it happens to be your birthday.

If I didn' talk of FIFA, my hostel life would only be half complete. FIFA is the computer football game. Initially, it was a rage amongst many of our blockies althought most of the other guys found AOE and NFS more interesting. However, within a short period most of our guys uninstalled FIFA as it was getting too addictive. Finally, there were just three of us(Me, wayne and niket) who were playing the game throughout the year. We had some memorable matches and even longer analyses after the game. By now, we have mastered most of the moves and the game is beginning to lose its charm.Infact we are eagerly waiting for the release of FIFA 2007.

Our TV & printer room was unique - it was just another student's room converted into a common room unlike other blocks where they had a separate, spacious common room. Our room had just three chairs and at any point of time, not more than 6 or 7 people can be inside the room. We had some great moments there watching the football and cricket matches. My favorite moment was when Pathan picked up a hat-trick against pakistan and I woke up the entire block on that sunday morning with my screams of joy. The printer in the room is a very old one and doesn't work most of the times. We spend most of our times trying to get it running but ultimately end up printing it from other blocks.

There are many more things which I just want to go on and on about, but I think I will stop here. Now that a new batch with bigger size is going to come in, we will have to vacate our rooms in the second year as it is converted into an all-girls block. Iam definitely going to miss A-block. The entire feel is something which cannot be described in words. Things would probably be never the same again, but then it's always the people who make it special rather than the place itself. So hopefully another exciting year of hostel life is in the offing.