That first vote

Now, the real story starts. I was in my hostel the night before election day — around 11 pm — when one of our respected sants, Shree Balavir Swami, called for us. He insisted, much to our surprise, that all of us should go home and exercise our franchise. He virtually forced us to go home and vote.

At first I thought it would be much too late for me to make such a trip at short notice. But then I changed my mind and convinced my room mate to accompany me home. We quickly packed and started walking towards the nearest railway station — which was seven kilometres away. We walked for about two and then managed to flag down a rickshaw. The driver took the by-lanes but then decided to turn back since there was tension in the air. After all, Godhra and the riots that followed were still fresh on everyone’s mind.

But something in us made us determined to vote. We jumped on to a private bus around 12 midnight. The stretch from Vadodara to Bhavnagar takes nearly four hours. I don’t remember a more tense journey than the one we now made. There was no question of being able to sleep. Every time the bus slowed down, we peered out of the windows anxiously for signs of trouble. We reached Bhavnagar at 4 am. To our great surprise there was not a single rickshaw to take us home. That walk too was one of fear and tension. Dogs ran after us, our bags suddenly appeared to weigh a ton and the police, mobilised for the elections, were there at every point to check us out.

When I reached home my father, who was of course not expecting me, shouted angrily, “Kon chhe tya?” (whose there?). It took almost 10 to 15 minutes to convince my folks that it was their son out there in the dark, waiting to come in!

We could get to sleep only in the early hours of the morning but by 11 am we were at the booth ready to press that all-important button. That procedure entailed just a few seconds, but how much effort we had to put in to exercise our right to vote for the first time in our lives!