The Way It Began

A  : Have u ever voted?

B  : Ya once when I was in India

A  : And it’s been 7 yrs since you technically could?

B  : Yes

A  : Would you have voted if you were in India for the recently concluded elections?

B  : Ya I would vote every time and in fact I was the class representative back in college

B  : So we did some special campaign and our college was one of the voting centers

A  : I was just thinking…

B  : And like I hate it

A  : Hate what?

B  : Indians sometimes just don’t realize the importance of voting

A  : I know!!

B  : Only like 40% of population cast their vote, which is so bad

A  : I know..

B  : So I hate the system, I mean people don’t want to change

B  : If it is made sure that all the people in India vote, it will make a huge difference

A  : Every year at least a lakh students move out of India

A  : So if u take into account the four years of undergrad students already outside and add 2 more for post grad and 2 more for Ph.D. and other degrees, there are at least 9 lakh students outside if the rate in of students >= rate out.

A  : These 9 lakhs could have been able to vote if they had been in India

A  : If only there was some way in which these 9 lakh students could vote...because technically they are Indians and it’s their fundamental right 2 vote and it is up to the govt. to create provisions for them

B  : Ya they can have a online system

A  : I know!!

B  : But you know the system is not transparent and Indians are so reluctant to adapt to new technology or changes

B  : To start such system you need the Indian Govt. to help

A  : Not help no...you need to direct them

B  : They won’t agree unless they see any profit, trust me

A  : Yeah who isn’t corrupt these days…and that’s the challenge

B  : What is the challenge? They have made politics so bad that even if you want to reform the system you cannot do it alone by yourself

A  : So I didn’t talk of doing it alone

B  : Some people don’t want to take part, some people just don’t care

B  : There are so many who think that they don’t have time to think about all this and there are other things to do

A  : Like?

B  : Other stuff which is important for them

A  : That’s what..everyone has their own jobs but the ones who are supposed to be handling the job of running the country well aren’t doing it

A  : So people who aren’t supposed to be doing it have to do it without a choice by finding out time if they want to live better

B  : I have seen them very closely

A  : Yeah..and?

B  : And it’s like in the end people laugh at you if you talk to them about this

A  : I don’t care

B  : Even I don’t care but people should have the zest to change things, the will

A  : They do...it’s just lost

B  : It’s ok I know to be so aggressive at your age

A  : I knew you’d say that, probably some day even you were…but even you are growing to be ignorant

A  : See that’s what happens, every time a man/woman grows this aggressiveness grows out of them

A  : Why can’t it stay, why do they have to be so immune to the condition around them so absorbed in their own selfish lives?

B  : Because you cannot do it alone, we need motivation to do such stuff and that too continuously!

A  : That’s what everyone thinks...that they cannot do it alone, forgetting that in this process we're actually uniting in thinking that we can’t do it rather than the positive

A  : Motivation is what is being lost and do you know who gets us motivated??

B  : Who?

A  : The bomb blasts and the firings

B  : But one more thing I noticed is only middle class people are aggressive to change India

B  : These extra rich people never show interest and the poor cannot

B  : That’s why I really like the political system of the developed countries and how actively people participate

A  : Yeah because they're aware and here no one is aware

B  : No because they want to know and they take interest which is why they are aware

B  : And it’s the other way round in India as people are so used to corruption that you become indifferent to it

A  : But meanwhile I need a way to get in touch with the Indians outside and discuss their voting rights

B  : Facebook, orkut?

A  : There are hundreds of groups of all subjects in them and I don’t want to get lost that way

B  : Hmmm…you can write blogs to create awareness

B  : On this so people vote and if they cannot because they are outside unite to make sure the govt. takes some measures to create provisions for voting

A  : You think its effective just writing?

B  : Yes…do you know there are some NRI’s who are sending a petition to enable proxy-voting for them

A  : What’s that?

B  : An Indian citizen outside India can give his voting rights to any one trusted person who is in the same constituency as his so that the person can vote for him in addition to voting under his own name too

A  : That would indeed be great. If only such a bill was passed, it would help immensely

B  : Ya but first we need awareness. Ok let’s start this…