Dance of Democracy

The elections to the 15th Lok Sabha and to the state assemblies in a few states in April - May 2009 witnessed an unprecedented awareness amongst the youth in this country on the importance of voting in a democracy. Several hugely successful campaigns were undertaken by NGOs and members of the civil society across the country.

Both of us were actively supporting couple of such campaigns (Let’s Vote, National Election Watch) at our work places and within the community. As someone who has moved to Hyderabad about 4 years ago, we were amongst those whose names did not figure in the electoral rolls in Hyderabad.

When our efforts to get our names in the list failed, we decided that our votes must not go wasted. Our names were still figuring in the electoral rolls in Bangalore. We planned our travel and undertook consecutive overnight train journeys just so that we could cast our votes in Bangalore on April 23. We were on the road (tracks?) for more than 24 hours in a span of 36 hours.

This picture makes all our efforts worth it! A sense of pride and fulfillment is far too valuable as compared to any hardships this journey may have entailed!

Hail democracy!