A Mock Election for Real

Venue : Village School,Khairadeep,Aurangabad,Bihar
Date : A Month of April Probably,Year 1993
Time:Classes Resuming after Lunch Break

HeadMaster : We shall study the The Chapter of Bal Sabha today.
(Bal Sabha is a concept that was introduced by Bihar State text Book Corporation to make primary students familiar with election process in a playful manner.)

As was the custom,students read one paragraph each followed by Master Saab explaining
the paragraph.The concept of bal sabha was thrilling enough for these 4th standard Kids who were not even in there teens.Mohan,a student of the class was feeling restless to say something.He was the topper of his class and a favourite of Master saab.

Mohan : Master saab,can we organise Bal Sabha in our School?

That's how it began,the kids were about to have their first tryst with something called election.Excitement was in the air.Hurriedly,whole of the school was summoned inside
the only hall or room in the school.Kids were happy to have got relieved from studies for the remaining day.The process was explained to everyone,everybody had to write the names of the candidates they wished to endorse.

Master saab asked for candidates to come forward.Mohan being the one who proposed was the obvious choice,a girl surabhi also came forward and the process kicked off with 100 odd voters and two candidates for the post of Prime-minister of Bal Sabha.
Counting was done by master saab himself and mohan emerged winner.

HeadMaster:Boy's a prime-minister is helped by his cabinate in carrying out his duty.We'll have our cabinate too.

Some posts were created by Master saab for the cabinate and he himself handpicked the post-holders too.The posts were :
Bagwani Mantri
Safai Mantri
Prarthna Mantri etc.

Surabhi was Made Bagwani Mantri and Bal Sabha started funcioning from next day onwards.Surabhi,being the bagwani mantri ensured that she collected all the varieties of flowers available in the small village and get them planted inside the school premises.Safai Mantri took care that school campus was properly groomed every morning and ensured the participation of each student.He also proposed "Leepai" every thursday for the campus(Leepai is done with a mix of cow-dung and water on the bare soily surfaces,considered auspicious).This was the most popular move,as every student
involved in leepa got a official permission from master saab to have a dip in canal flowing by so that the students could get themselved cleaned of cow-dung on their bodies.Swimming in canal was always a popular activity among those school kids.

With flowers blooming and the campus cleaner,the mood in school was festive.The kids found their first encounter with the democratic process called election more than good.However,they were told by Master Saab that it was a mock election and they should see the real ones too.

A few months later,assembly elections took place in Bihar and the same school was choosen as polling booth for a couple of neighbouring villages.The kids having grown a little older were eager to watch this 'real election' with the memories of the
'mock election' still fresh in their mind.

A few gun shots,hooliganism and extremely tense faces,this is how the real election marked their first impression on kids.As they grew older further,more of such 'real elections' were held. The memory of Bal Sabbha\Mock elections gradually got replaced by that of Real Elections.

After some 16 years later,on the eve of another real election,one of the kids
remembers his first encounter with election(though a mock one) and wishes
"If my first impression could have been the last too".

P.S. : Mohan ---> The Author

Inbetween Life & Death

24th March,2009:: Tuesday:: 00:19 Hrs

First few pages into Randy Pausch's,The Last Lecture and out of nowhere a wish came,a wish to have pancreatic cancer,just as Randy had,with some months or a year left into my life,So that,I wud have an excuse to unburden myself of my expectations and do my own Dasvidaniya.

No,it's not being pessimist,rather an Extreme Optimist.The optimism that this one year wud be far more satisfying than the 40 or 50 years I'd live under normal circumstances.It's like an intense desire to experience the state where I have a few months of my life left and then test myself.How would I behave,what great a height or low a depth I will achieve?

Perhaps,I could do it without a pancreatic cancer too,but then it'd be difficult to justify it to me myself and then probably I will never do it.

That's all for now ,let me dive deep into the book...

Ashutosh

Is Our Multi-Party Character at its Peak?

Never has it been that we have so many wannabe PM's going into election all at a time.This election is probably the Local Maxima of India's Multi-Party Democracy and I sincerely think that 2014 will see a much more consolidated fight between two projected PM candidates.
From 1989 onwards multi party democracy has seen a steep rise of influence with many regional satraps playing a major role in deciding who occupies the coveted chair at North Block.We have seen many maya,mamta or jaylalitas causing tremors across delhi with just a sneeze.But now I believe that this all will end,not immediately but over a course of time and we'll see the trend catching up in 2014 elections.Well 2014 is 5 years away and I'm not predicting this on the basis of planetary postitions either,I have some reasons to say so....

(1) The two national parties over the past few years have worked on their Second Generation Leaders and probably it's the last time that Advani will decide who's who at BJP or Sonia Gandhi will play Rajmata.In all probability,Rahul Gandhi will take on the baton from her mother and Narendra Modi from Mr. Advani.Both of them have mass national appeals and them participating against each other will see a strong polarisation of votes.

(2) Don't you think,it's too much of uncertainity over who will be our next leader?
The public after having been perplexed by so many choices will finally zero on to two or three(The Rule of Three :)).This I see as a gradual evolution of Indian Democracy into a matured one.Indian Public after having been disappointed by National Leadership looked on to Regional Leaders and as is clear,the aspirations are still unfulfilled barring a few exceptions(eg Uttaranchal) so once again the mandate will move to national leadership.

(3) Unlike National Parties,state based parties are still nascent ones and rely heavily on Individuals for their existence.Once the Magic of Bal Thakrey or Lalu Yadav wanes,their votes are likely to be up for Grabs and with national parties gearing up so well,I think they'll have this chunk.

(4)The betrayals at Bhuvaneshwar and Patna is a lesson enough for both BJP and Congress that alliances can't be a long term solution and already we can hear talks that going alone this time in some states will prepare them well for future elections.
Though a bit shocked,BJP in Orissa and Congress in Bihar & UP is relieved to go alone and test the waters.

(5)A likely fractured mandate this time will see further distraction of public from regional politics and I rely heavily on the our Democratic Intellect when I say that 2014 will see a reversal of fortunes for regional parties.

With Thakreys fighting a battle for survial and Lalu being in the most vulnerable state this time,we can see the signs of future to come.
We'll have to wait till 2014 to know whether I have been correct or not,but for Now we have a very interesting contest going on and let us savour it as India has never seen an election as chaotic as this one...

General Elections and Prospects for India

Taking a leaf out of my last post,I thought about an array of leaders whom I can mention as 'better than the lot',alash!!none could I find.
Someone had shown immense capabilities as a statesman taking his state on a path of prosperity,but his sheer disrespect for Human Lives has made me nauseating to say the least,the other has a nice little chocolaty, dimple wala face,but has shown no capabilities as a politician so far, other than using his surname.So on and so forth,I could find none whom I could admire from my heart,except the one I mentioned in my previous post.
Probably yes,our politics has stooped to such a low level that we hardly have any National Icon from among our politicians.The irony being,inspite of all this,you'll find many living iconic figures hanging from the walls of secretariat and ministries.

Make no mistake,coming time is going to test our character as a nation and we need a strong government to steer us through this chaos.


All of our neighbours are facing major national crisis.

Pakistan: The state is imploding and the very idea of pakistan is in danger.Politicians are fighting among themselves,army is being a mute spectator watching talibani mullahs dictating the way of lives to general public,and a large part of the nation in under the effective controle of fundamentalists.

Bangladesh : Already having seen a revolt by Bangladesh Rifles,the nation is slowly moving to disintegration.The Goevernment being so weak as to take the help of a foreign agency for probing their home grown mutiny.That tells the whole story.

SriLanka : Though at the moment facing a civil war.But I think we have light at the end of tunnel.We may well see the end of 20 year long civil war in the Island Nation.However,we may also see a large number of tamil refugess flocking our southern coasts and this may augur further problems to us.

Nepal : Though peaceful for sometime now,the goverment has clearly shown its inclination towards china.this doesnot bode well for India.

With economic recession deepening further,going by the indications of world bank and IMF,we need more economic stimulus and this requires some strong decisions politically.

All thess make a strong case for a Stable and Decisive government at the centre.We don't want the situation of 97-98 where PM's were changed sooner than cloths.

Having said that,recent political developments refuse to provide any such signal,rather the opposite.NDA is in tatters,UPA is still not in a position to form a government,third front is rising from its ashes only to make the scene more chaotic.
A fractured mandate by us will see horse trading at centre.Ministries as Railway,Home,Finance,Defence will be distributed to placate many wannable PM's and we shall have a goevernment with the only aim to spend as much time in the office as possible.

Let's hope some miracle happens and we have a stable government at the centre.otherwise...Pray for India..

The great Indian Festival..general Elections 2009

With general elections so near,I can't resist my political views and will be putting some blogs related to politics.
The one about Narendra Modi and Taliban is already for you to see..
Today I shall be discussing about some politicians who I think are better than the lot.




The first Person coming into my list is Omar Abdullah,The CM of J&K and the political scion of Abdullah family.Though coming from a political dynasty,he has shown extra-ordinary maturity the way he has handled the Affairs of state So far.And it's this quality that puts him far ahead of many babalog(read Rahul Gandhi,Jyotiraditya schindhia) of his time.Probably it's his defeat from Gandarbal Constituency in 2004 that made him more sensible and practical politically.At least he does not look for a safe nest unlike others.He contested from the same constituency from where he had tasted defeat and went on to become the CM of his state.
Finally the terror torned J&K had its Bout of Luck in the form of Omar Abdullah becoming the Chief Minister.Probably,destiny decided that for a state like J&K which is always under the glare of International attention and ravaged from terror, none other than a Omar would do .Good Luck to Omar and J&K.

will keep adding to this list as and when I get time...

Ramblings...

(1)Spent Last weekend at Goa sponsored by Company.It was an awesome experience..specially the two nights spent at Beaches..In the night the sea level rises and waves were almost touching our couch.Beneath the open sky,waves touching your couch,fog getting denser by every hour and some russian couples playing it out a few meters away(We came to know abt their identity as they took some time off their hectic activity and came to us asking for cigarrette for more than one time),It was an unforettable experience. So my suggestion to all goa goers,go with your friends and spend a full night on beaches.

(2) As one of my friend puts it..Daru Bechne wala Buys Gnadhi's Vision(He called his specs his vision once)..Kalyug hai..

(3) I was just wondering ,how hit a movie Based on Kunwar Singh's life would be?
For those who don't know abt kunwar singh,he was a legendary freedom fighter from Arrah in Bihar.He gave Britishers a hell of a fight during 1857 revolt and finally when he was shot in the Arm,he himself cut the ailing part and threw it in the Ganges flowing by.That shud be pitty normal for we have heard of so many such brave deeds,but what would you say if the man in question was 80 years old?Yes,he was 80 years Old.Now doesn't that make a perfect script and ideal role for someone like Amitabh Bacchan? Probably I shud write this idea as a comment on Amitabh's Blog.Who knows he might like it and the...

(4) That the attack was planned on Lankan Cricketers and Not on Pakistani Cricketers Does show that talibanis have something for pakistani cricketers..do they love cricket or pakistani cricketers? i do think so...though they may never admit...