Thursday, April 28, 2011

Experience of conducting voting exercise in India


If you work in a public sector company you are a public servant. But in India it is other way around, you become a government servant, you have to abide by every order (official terms are Circulars, Notices, etc...) even if does not belong to your domain of knowledge or ability or any other suitable word you want to fit in here.

Kolkata and adjoining places went to vote on 27.04.2011. The manpower summoned by the election commission largely comprised of such public servants. The tyranny of the people chosen for this exercise on a pure random basis without putting any logical inputs can be put in a just a word. “Un-Explainable”

Some examples:

  • All such people referred to as polling personnel are supposed to be thoroughly trained for this exercise. There are only two sessions in which you are supposed to learn things similar to a Management Degree Course. Easy for some…. Downside is the training was given entirely in Bengali. Think of the public servants working in Bengal who have been posted from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat…
  • The commission knows the conditions of the remote places. But DOES not care to take any steps to ensure proper lighting facilities for such polling booths. Result: Even the fittest of the youth would find to difficult to see the ballot and press the button, almost everyone would turn blind.
  • Paper work as in any government work is very high... but having 200 envelopes and forms to filled in signed and sealed along with taking votes is a big ask and requires too much time. We need to understand and SIMPLYFY the process, there is too much scope here for simplicity.

The media is always busy shooting celebrities and accounting first timers experience should also try and report about the conditions of such places.

Suggestions to the election commission:

  • Please spare the aged people (50 and above) from such duties. As we grow Old we become fragile.
  • Please take the pain to ensure proper lighting wherever possible.(I never expected a place around Kolkata to not have electricity…)
  • SIMPIFY the processes… if you are adopting technology for the betterment do away with the papers (as in We send SMS and also record the same information in three forms and triplicate and file them in separate envelops. WHY?)

Lastly, thank you Election Commission, for choosing me, in the process someone about to retire in a month would have been spared of the Ordeal we had been through.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Letter to Mahendra Singh Dhoni


Dear MSD,

On 31st March 2011, I had mentioned in this blog that I was disappointed with your batting in the Semi Final against Pakistan. But I also had mentioned that probably you are waiting for the right time to peak up to your best performance. I had also mentioned that I did not want you to bat in the final innings.
When in the final innings so many runs were given by Sreesanth, I even questioned your captaincy. I made remarks on your selection of bowling spells. When Sachin was given out, I thought we are again going to witness a 2003 debacle.
The day the tournament started, I wanted to see the Helicopter Shot, but as the tournament progressed hope gave way to disappointment. As more and more innings went by, the belief got tested and somewhere I also broke down to change the thinking, that it was only Sachin who could win the cup for himself.
I was also referred to by my friends to be thinking very negative, but when Kohli went out, I wanted you to come up the order, because of the feeling that Yuvi although in form is not comfortable with spin and you could finally show some character. When you were batting at 7 off 17 balls, I had remarked that hope rests with Raina once again.
But, thank you for proving me wrong, thank you reinstating the belief, thank you for showing the ultimate character, thank you for putting up a performance I will never ever forget! 
In your entire after match interviews were punching me with answers on the questions I had raised and I was feeling ecstatic each time. May be we will win many more World Cups under more pressure situations but I am sure along with 1.2 Billion Indians that this one will always remain special. Something I would cherish to tell even my grand children about!
To top it all when God says this:

Dhoni is the best captain I played under

then you know you have achieved whatever you were born to achieve!!

P. S: And thank you for the modified Helicopter!!

Suman Paul