Fevered election campaigns

I haven't really been following the election run up. Hell! who am I fooling, I have never followed the elections. I am content keeping abreast of the winners, and then joining the teeming millions in abusing them for the rest of their terms. 

This year I noticed something new in the election campaign. Or maybe I have been exposed to it for the first time. I have been on the receiving end of a barrage of election campaign SMses with promises to bring the stars of galaxies we are yet to discover to earth. Besides that, I am also getting messages from a host of people (well known I guess in political circles) pledging their allegience to respective  parties and urging me to do so as well. 

Every medium worth its salt is engaged in dissecting candidates and predicting results. The final show however, in case I need to remind everyone, is run by us the common people. For years now we have been satisfied or rather disinterested with our lot. 

Recently our roads were tarred, open drainages are being close, road lights are being fixed... and all of us are standing around saying, "OH, the elections are round the corner." We have the political class down on their knees begging for voters to come forward and vote. But the process of getting an election id is as herculean as rising from the dead. No wonder a huge number (and I will shamelessly admit that I am included) refrain from making an election id. The last time I did have one, my name and gender was all wrong, despite me filling in details myself!!!

The elections will come and go, the tarred roads will be riddled with potholes again, corruption will get a new face and we will still be satisfied with our lot. There is no point in preaching that one should rise up... power lies in the working class and all that jazz. Bringing a political turnaround has to come from a collective mindset. A mindset that we are lightyears away from. 

The vicious cycle of brain drain, a minority educated class, a goonda raj in power are all reasons why we as a country fail to move ahead. Despite all the misery this country has faced, our walls of immunity seem to be impregnable. What else can possibly happen to motivate the Indian psyche to think beyond themselves and about the greater good. 

Is our life so miserable that we are forced to think of nothing else. Or do we consider ourselves so sheltered, that the word can pass us by without us having to bother.