Voting for the first time

So finally I voted in a General Election.

Whew!

It was fun. Apparently one has to first get the bit of paper containing your name and the polling booth number. This is generally door-to-door delivered but of course I am never at home. So I went over to the booth outside the polling station and got the paper. Then came the revelation. These booths are manned by party workers. The one I approached was manned by BJP workers who earnestly asked me to vote for BJP.

At this point I looked around and found a booth manned by Congress workers and another by CPI workers. There was no sign of BSP or other parties, but presumably they were there for I was told by the faculty at MSU, who had been roped in to do election duty unlike us privileged Central University teachers, that each polling booth has party workers from every party as observers to ensure free and fair elections.

Inside, there are host of characters. One checks your name, the other gets you to sign, the third puts the indelible ink on your finger, and then you vote.

I finally felt that I belonged to some country instead of being just a vagabond.