Election Woes - To be or not to be (a Pappu)!

It's 3 pm and I'm slowly melting away in a room that feels more like a sauna. There's been no electricity and although I am one of those fortunate people who happen to have an inverter, I still feel as though my insides are beginning to cook. Liver and kidney pie anyone?

On a more serious note, I really should have expected the power cuts in Delhi to resume once the election results were declared. I remember telling someone the other day that the power situation in Delhi had remarkably improved. Now I realise how stupidly gullible we all are and how short term our memories really are. I sometimes wonder if politicians are actually trained psychologists who know exactly how to reach in to our brains and play make-believe with us. We really are puppets in their hands - they mollycoddle us when they need us and then dump us when they've got what they wanted from us.

A few days before the elections, the main road near our colony suddenly got an unexpected face-lift. This was long over due as the previous monsoons had left the road looking more like the surface of the moon. Workers toiled away in the blistering heat while residents watched in glee and commended the efforts of the local government, while completely forgetting the fact that we had suffered in silence for nearly a year while our bones rattled when we bounced up and down these pot holes in our cars. We've now cast our votes, the bulldozers have disappeared and the colony roads have been left untouched.

So who's the fool? They told me I would be a 'Pappu' if I didn't cast my vote this time. Honestly, I did try very hard to vote this year and was initially made to believe that the entire process was fairly easy. I applied for a voter’s card and deposited a form to register my name as a voter. My voter’s card never arrived and when I asked the election commission about whether my name was in the voter’s list in my constituency, I was told no such name existed and that nothing could be done about it. Apparently, I don’t exist, not to the government anyway. Obviously, my vote or my opinion doesn’t matter much as well. I couldn’t help but feel a little dejected on voting day, while television channels and constant text messages ranted on about the whole ‘Pappu’ thing. So, here’s a big “BAAH” to websites like Jaagore.com and other such initiatives who made me believe that my vote would count and make a difference. If I am a Pappu, so be it. I did try!