Find yourself in the electoral rolls

I registered with the ERO of my constituency and I was eagerly searching for my name in the rolls. My name was in disguise in the list. If you face the same problem finding your name in the list, here is the reason (that I heard from Jaagore):

Names are transliterated from Kannada to English.

So your name might not have the spelling that you expect. Search for your name with different combination of first few letters. You may find it. If you do, go, vote.

Here is the site for Karnataka: http://stg1.kar.nic.in/searchfinalroll_2009/

Thanks Jaagore for waking me up.

The Political Clutter

I was out of home after 20, and I never voted in any election because I was moving from place to place. Now I registered with the Rolls Officer. I hope my name will be included in the list and if it is, I will definitely vote.

Came across this quote today:

The ultimate tragedy is not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people. -Martin Luther King

Yes, don’t be silent. I’ve seen many people criticizing politicians. I always ask them “Did you bother to vote in the last election?” Yes, it’s the silence of good people that’s bad. You may be good in your profession, earning good salary, paying taxes more than you really want to etc. but paying taxes is just not enough to run the country. We need good leaders, when there are no good leaders, there will be only “politicians”.

The current situation is bad. Parties have become family-run businesses. Vote has become a commodity. ECI is doing its best, but still this country is too diverse and too big to control each and every thing. And not to forget, the rift between ECs.

AP politics has become very interesting these days. With so many parties and “mergers”, they look like businesses. Have a look at what kind of people are going to rule the state. Coming into power at any cost seems to be the main aim, instead of serving people.

Some years back, the ‘Vision 2020′ was colorful to me. I appreciate each and everything that happened in the IT world of AP in his time. But now the ‘Television 2009′ looks awkward to me. Why should people be given color TVs? Everyone will get what they deserve. Try to raise income levels of people by creating good jobs and providing more opportunities. People will buy color TVs themselves. Why do you want to take away their dignity? This is just making people lazy. This practice is not good to the nation in the long run. No, I don’t want my tax money to go like that. Teach fishing guys. Don’t feed.

Then emerged a ray of hope for the people of Telangana. What’s the great man been doing? Separate state might be good for people, but what about the problem of Fluoride in hundreds of villages? Do you care to save people from “the poison”? Sir, will it be solved magically if you get Telangana? What’s your priority? Don’t worry, separate state will come along.

I thought “the star” would bring change in political scene. But doesn’t seem to be. For now, looks better than existing parties, but once they come into power, the real color will be exposed. After all, most people came from other parties.

And who wants to give mobile phones to below BPL people? Bring IT to people, it’s good. But, first create jobs for them, they will buy them on their own. You (I) need not give them. And don’t forget that India is not only Hindus. Only Hindutva will take you nowhere. I want to live in harmony, not amid hate and fear. Yes, I still remember who gave me nice roads to travel. Thanks for that. Promise and make such investments, I would me more than happy to support you.

We’re seeing the corrupt government in the papers daily. Sir, people are watching you. May be you should go to a top B-school and teach how to create companies and make them profitable. Many facilities brought by the govt. look good from outside, but how well it reached people is the question. But my mom cares only her groceries budget, and she knows which party is ruling the state. BTW, what did those European folks tell when they visited us?

In this big clutter, a ray of hope is JP. His 50 guarantees are sensible. And I believe he can bring change to the situation. Sir, my mom doesn’t know that your party even exists. You might be good, but you need to get into the masses. I think your priority should be to get a permanent symbol for elections. I know how difficult is it to do that amid vote bank rich and cash-rich parties. But, you will make it one day. I support you at the moment.

And what would I do? Donate my two cents to the party I support. And VOTE.

At least, I would send the best of the worst to the Parliament, if I don’t get to choose a good one.

Mr. Bush, we wont give your pizza back!

I’m little surprised to hear comments from the US big shots that India is responsible for rising food prices globally. I don’t think it was in a rough tone, but there is something Mr. Bush needs to know.

Well, when people have money, they demand for the best. What’s wrong in that? That’s what consumerism is. Come on, it’s the USA who brought consumerism to this level and you come back and say “Hey, you Indians, don’t eat pizzas, food prices are going up”. WT*! You wanted us to open up our economy for Pizza Hut and Dominos to enter our market.

I appreciate your logic, but choose your words carefully. We know English too.

Just an example: Why are oil prices going up globally? How many cars are there in the US? And how many in India? What’s the ratio of people having cars in the two countries? You can hardly do anything in California with out a car. May I ask all the San Francisco people to use bicycles to climb the steep roads?

Food can be produced, oil can’t be. Why the hell did you go to Iraq and kill innocent people? Do you have an answer? What goes around comes around. You should have realized it on Sep 11 2001.

Consumerism can be started, hardly can be stopped.

Mr. Bush, we know what we are doing. The world is small and every thing you talk has so many implications. Just get out of office and give way to the next President.