“I am to represent the oppressed, the least heard and the neglected ones. It is my humble duty to work for them and see that they are given equal importance and rights. You have many sophisticated people around you which forget simple ones. This never can be tolerated. We must rise to the occasion and do what is right. It is my humble request to vote keeping this in your mind….”- whom did you hear? Gandhi? Ambedkar? V.P. singh? Indira? Wrong! This was my best friend bimal chhaya! Obviously there was election of class representative (CR) and bimal was one of the contestants.
This was the first ever election in our batch. For interaction with the college authorities and the seniors, we badly needed a CR. The name was not the unanimous. So we opted for the election.
There was general agreement about the election officers – me and ketandada. We were given the responsibility to conduct the operation smoothly and honestly. The venue was the lecture hall.
Though bimal had huge support from anish, sandeep, hemani, girish, kamlesh, kapil and most of the boys from the old boys’ hostel, he lacked clear support from the girls’ hostel side. The opponent had good rapport with the girls. He also had advantage of general acceptance amongst the new hostel’s boys and the seniors. He was none other than jasmine shah.
“No election should go uncontested …and so I stand here in front of you.” Said bimal. Very true principally. He was very good friend of all of us and especially mine. He banked on our votes. On the other hand, jasmine shah was from our hostel and he too was a good friend.
“See I am not against bimal. But we have lived in the same hostel and at this moment it is my right to get support from you all friends.” Jasmine was clear in demanding our votes.
For me, on personal front, it was a great dilemma. Bimal was 100% sure of my support and it was difficult to not to vote for him. Jasmine was with me since days of ragging. He had very good organizing skills.
Jasmine was lucky enough to have almost full support from the girl’s of our class. He had great opportunity and skill to communicate with the girls while routine weekly traveling to Ahmedabad. He and tapasvi were known as kanhaiyas of our batch, as they were seen surrounded by gopis of our class in the train! They both could talk hours together with the girls sparking giggles! Bimal, though a good communicator, also a weekly traveler to Ahmedabad like jasmine, was probably seen as extra sincere man not fit for being popular figure amongst girls.
Some batch mate even created issue of dominance. “If we support bimal, the students from the old boys’ hostel would dominate us since bimal belongs to that hostel. Do you want this to happen?”
“Bimal has very good command on English. He can present our batch anywhere be it the college authority, seniors, juniors or outside the college.” A small point raised by some.
Just a day before the day of voting, jasmine came to our room.
“Neh, I know you are very close to bimal. But we belong to same hostel. Give me a promise that you will vote for me tomorrow. I really need your support.” He demanded clearly.
“He is right neh. The issues raised by bimal are not the real ones. He sees himself as a savior of the oppressed. That is not true.” Said tapasvi.
Few moments were very distressing for me. How would bimal feel? Deceived? Was it right to support bimal on hypothetical issues?
“So neh, what have you thought?” my thoughts were interrupted by jasmin’s query. He knew very well if I say yes to him that would be 100%.
“Ok.” I made up my mind. “I promise I will vote for you” very difficult decision.
Soon after this, bimal arrived to confirm my support.
“So man, you are to vote for me. Right?” he straightly asked me. For a moment, I had no answer. I could have given false reply or a political statement but I had to be truthful.
“Sorry bimal, just before a few minutes, I promised my vote to jasmine” said I fearing strong rejection from bimal.
To my surprise, he smiled a bit, did not utter a single word of dislike but said “but this is not going to come in way of our friendship…ok?”
How blessed I was to have such a wonderful friend as my buddy! Even when I clearly denied my support, he supported and nurtured our friendship.
As the day of election arrived, we all met in the lecture hall for voting.
I and ketan shah had prestigious duty of conducting the election smoothly and honestly. There were no any external observers of the process.
Bimal knew I was to vote against him.
The voting was smooth and as expected, jasmine shah was declared the winner and so he became our first CR. Savior was not saved….
No comments:
Post a Comment