Nithin Kamath's Weblog

Coming back to the intent of writing this post, during the time I spent there one thing which really hit across and which we hardly notice these days is that of true happiness. In a age where money and success is all that matters, it was a real treat to observe small kids express their happiness which brought about a bigger smile on their parents faces.

My bench was in a strategic spot where in the kids could start seeing the large newly opened playing area with see-saw, swings etc. As the kids came the reactions were worth the watch, I missed not having taking my camera along. Each kid responded differently, some jumped with joy, some pulled their parents to come along faster, others just ran forward in full throttle to the play area.

If I had taken the camera, I would have loved to take a photo of a small boy who came wearing cool orange goggles and the moment he saw the play area, he stood still on his track. After a couple of seconds, he took off his goggles in style with his eyes still popped out. Now thats what I call being wonder struck. After the initial adrenaline rush was over, he put back his goggles and ran to the play area, leaving his parents gasping for air trying to catch up with him.

Yes, this should get us thinking, when kids can be so happy and express it so nicely why can’t we. We can see people all around stuck up with their own life, not happy with what they have and wanting more, most of them filled with anger just looking for trigger to blow.

As we celebrate Independence day, I would say is the right day to get rid of all the cobweb you are caught in. Enjoy the freedom you have been provided and relax, enjoy the world around.

Note: So far this year I have not been able to write much on my blog. So I have thought the only way to revive my blogging area is to write small and quick random thoughts and observations.

April 30th was the third phase of the on going Lok Sabha elections in India and the second and the final phase of the polling in Karnataka. I had to take a leave off from my office (polling was complete in Bangalore the previous Thursday (23rd) itself) and goto Mangalore to cast my vote.

This was the third or the fourth time I cast my vote, the last being a year and a half back for the by-elections. Due to the delimitation process my area moved from Ullal constituency to Dakshina Kannada. There were 11 contestants who were in the running out of which seven were independents.

I went around 9:30 am and was able to cast my vote in around 10 minutes. I hear that at a few places people had to wait for a long time (about a hour or so) before they would cast their votes. Overall the percentage of people who voted in Dakshina Kannada (DK) was the highest in Karnataka – 74%.

One of the reasons I could see for this was the May 1st holiday. Lots of Mangalorean people have now moved out of Mangalore and are working in other cities like Bangalore. Taking a leave on 30th for voting would have given them an extended four day weekend and it looks like most of them utilised it cleverly.

A couple of weeks still to go before the counting starts lets hope the best candidate wins and we have a stable government at the centre.