Nope, I havent voted. And this is the first time since I have turned legally an adult and therefore fully responsible for my own goof ups that I havent.
Now here come the excuses.
For one we’ve shifted suburbs. And our ration cards are made out to the new address, while our voters id cards, the old ones are still at the old one.
Yup. We havent made our new voter id cards. How shameful can we be! Procrastination, they say, should be my middle name and sloth, the spouse’s. The sole attempt I made to get our names on the damn list had me standing and stewing in the line for an hour after which I was asked to come back the next day with some xeroxes and of course, I never went back.
The main reason of course, is the candidates. They are both people I dont think I want to vote for. One candidate is a hardworking soul but with a party I dont support for its Hindutva ideology for obvious reasons. The other is a Bigg Boss escapee who leaves me totally cold when it comes to his actual real time efforts in politics.
And I had no clue where I was supposed to go this morning. Old place or new place. Hadnt received any slips notifying me too of my need to go and vote, and considering that the old residence is now a hole in the ground all in the good cause of redevelopment, I dont think I was getting any slips from there.
Okay. Enough excuses. I’m cringeing with shame now. I might just take a turn and check out the polling booth on my way back home.
But I hope you voted like the good citizen I hope you are.
About Kiran Manral
Kiran Manral is a writer and major social media influencer. After quitting her full-time journalist’s job when her son was born, Kiran became a mommy blogger on the internet, with a remarkably original voice. She was a journalist at The Asian Age, The Times of India, features editor Cosmopolitan, India Cultural Lead and Trend spotter at Gartner Iconoculture US, Senior Consultant at Vector Insights, Ideas Editor, SheThePeople.TV. Kiran is currently a celebrated author and an independent research and media consultant.
She was shortlisted for the Femina Women Awards for Literary Contribution in 2017. The Indian Council of UN Relations (ICUNR) supported by the Ministry of Women and Children, Govt of India, awarded her the International Women’s Day Award 2018 for excellence in the field of writing. In 2021 she was awarded the Womennovator 1000 Women of Asia award. In 2022, she was named amongst the 75 Iconic Indian women in STEAM by Red Dot Foundation and Beyond Black, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, and British High Commission, New Delhi.
Her novella, Saving Maya, was long-listed for the 2018 Saboteur Award, supported by the Arts Council of England in the UK. Her novels 'The Face At the Window’ and ‘Missing, Presumed Dead were both long-listed for Jio MAMI Word to Screen, and ‘The Face at the Window’ was showcased at the South Asian Film Festival 2019. The Kitty Party Murder was shortlisted for the Popular Choice award at the 2021 JK Papers TOI AutHER awards.
Her other books include The Reluctant Detective, Once Upon A Crush, All Aboard, Karmic Kids-The Story of Parenting Nobody Told You, A Boy’s Guide to Growing Up, True Love Stories, 13 Steps to Bloody Good Parenting, Raising Kids with Hope and Wonder in Times of a Pandemic and Climate Change, More Things in Heaven and Earth and Rising: 30 Women Who Changed India. She also has published short stories in various magazines, in acclaimed anthologies like Have A Safe Journey, Boo, The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018, Grandpa’s Tales, Magical Women and City of Screams. Kiran lives in Mumbai with her family.
Social media handles
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiranManral
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiranmanral/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KiranManralAuthorPage
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiranmanral/
Fortytwoandcounting 
If neither candidate is good enough then I guess it doesn’t make a difference. Anyway you are such a model citizen, with your initiatives like India Helps, you do much more for the city & country than any elected representative.
I’m glad you decided to continue blogging. I get almost no time to blog these days and very little time to comment or even read blogs but the two blogs I definitely read are your blogs though I don’t comment as frequently as I used to. Please keep blogging.
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Naina: You’re too kind. I will continue blogging ofcourse. That was just me being a bit of a dramebaaz.
But the guilt is tremendous about me not voting, even though I can justify it with the fact that I wouldnt have voted for either candidate.
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