Last Monday we had a local election day. We've been curiously observing various election campaigns for the last couple of weeks. There were rickshaws cruising in our neighborhood with pre-recorded messages blasting through the speakers. Sometimes a guy in the rickshaw would read messages live over microphone. Sometimes we saw demonstrators marching down the street with flags and matching hats. There were people knocking door to door handing out pamphlets of candidates. Obviously the only part we could understand from the pamphlet was the photo of the candidate. Once the candidate herself showed up at our door in her most exquisite sari with a large entourage of followers.
Apart from that, the election day didn't mean much to us except it was another day that our kids were out of school. We went around our business as usual until we noticed that our quiet street has become quite a parking lot. As we should have guessed, the Maruthu Rukmani school across from our house was a local voting point. The people were coming in various modes of transportation from early morning. Some by foot or on bicycle, some by rickshaws and motorcycles. The most important people came by cars driven by private drivers, and they parked right outside our house. Overall we were very impressed with how the election was conducted. Everything was organised and peaceful. I saw poll workers listing through lists of voters with people's names and photos. The next day we read in the paper that over 80% of rural and 64% of urban population came to vote. Way to go Tamil Nadu!
Below are some pictures we took on our street while walking to the corner vendor.
Apart from that, the election day didn't mean much to us except it was another day that our kids were out of school. We went around our business as usual until we noticed that our quiet street has become quite a parking lot. As we should have guessed, the Maruthu Rukmani school across from our house was a local voting point. The people were coming in various modes of transportation from early morning. Some by foot or on bicycle, some by rickshaws and motorcycles. The most important people came by cars driven by private drivers, and they parked right outside our house. Overall we were very impressed with how the election was conducted. Everything was organised and peaceful. I saw poll workers listing through lists of voters with people's names and photos. The next day we read in the paper that over 80% of rural and 64% of urban population came to vote. Way to go Tamil Nadu!
Below are some pictures we took on our street while walking to the corner vendor.
Mutamma is a voter. Her nail has been marked with hena. Voters on our street got their nails marked with permanent marker.
Lots of traffic at the entrance to Maruthu Rukmani school.
Maya and Raphael posing next to a motorcycle.
We're peaking inside the school gate, we can see poll workers with their lists.
We were stopped by two young ladies eager to know our names and pinch the kids' cheeks.
Another voter check point at the corner of our street.
Neat row of parked motorcycles. You can see our house ahead. We're still amazing at how much more orderly things are done here in Tamil Nadu versus the state of Orissa where we lived before.
VIPs arrived in cars and parked right next to our house.
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