An Outlet: Part 6

29 April, 2019.

It's the General Election Day today!

Well, technically it's the 4th phase of the election but you can say that it's the most important one because today's elections were held in the most crucial states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, etc. Due to the number of seats alloted to these states, phase 4 is the most decisive of the 2019 election.

Today's Google Doodle was also dedicated to India's General election along with details on how to vote. Not sure if it was only in India but it's a good, thoughtful gesture.

The first time I ever voted in my life was in 2017 but those were local elections. Today was my first time voting for the Lok Sabha, something that will affect the Prime Minister of our country for the next 5 years.

Currently there are two main parties in India: BJP (the current main ruling govt) and Congress (the one that was dethroned in the 2014 general elections). There are other parties as well but the main competition seems to be between these two parties. I'm not going to reveal who I gave my vote to tho. 

Anyways, my fam got ready and left for voting by 9AM. Our voting centre was in a nearby college that was walking distance from our house so that was good. What was not good was the major queue that we were welcomed by at the college/voting centre. I don't even remember there being half the crowd as this the last time I went to vote there.

Either people are very enthusiastic this time or the management was shit. It's probably both of them combined. Obviously, a general election is always much more exciting than a local election. Besides, apparently they had only one voting booth per room instead of 3. So yeah, we had to wait for about 2 hours in that humid, crowded environment until it was our turn to cast the vote.

Elections is probably one of the very few times where I hear a common consensus of senior citizens being a bit of a nuisance. Senior citizens have a way faster access to voting than others and since there was only one booth, everyone had to wait until the elders were done casting their votes. I heard quite a few complaints and saw irritated glances thrown everytime a senior citizen wanted to get past to the voting room.

I did feel bad for them. They did nothing wrong. Besides, it's a good thing that they even came to vote in the first place because that's what a responsible citizen should do. Although, I do agree that having a senior-citizen reserved booth would make the process so much more faster.

Anyways, mom and I got done with our voting but dad and Alex had quite a lot of people before them (due to gender based lines). So mom and I decided to head back home. Luckily, we even got a lift from a neighbour. Oh, I forgot to mention. I expected this but we encountered a lot of our building (ex)residents at the voting centre.

I came back home and started with Marketing Research. After going through the questions, I realised that there are so many questions that are out of the syllabus or atleast not given in our text book. Which is kinda messed up. But I'm trying to work my way around those questions so let's just hope that we don't get any random ass questions during our exams.

At night, Alex and I finally bought Dad's birthday gift aka plates that my dad had desired to have during of our dinner table conversations. I remembered that he wanted these specific kind of plates so that he feels satisfied when he serves us dishes, especially the delicious pan seared chicken that he makes. I know that that's what I wanted to buy for him but Alex, mom and I kept on having disagreements on the type and price of those items.

Since we didn't want to get him something he didn't want, Alex and I ultimately asked my dad for his preference and bought the desired item for him. It's going to be delivered on 2nd May, my dad's birthday. So yeah, there is no surprise element left yet, especially since I had to use my dad's ID for the purchase (which means that he of all people will receive updates on the gift's whereabouts). Lol. It's fine tho. Pretty sure dad appreciates the efforts.