Deja vu?

The memory of my last attempt (see the post Just another way we are sidelined in this blog) to be a civic-minded person and cast my vote is still too fresh in my memory for me to want to subject myself to an encore. So I had sort of decided that I would ignore the civic-minded half of my mind, and just refuse to participate in the electoral exercise that all India is going to be subjected to this year. But then, one of my group of disbility activists sent me an email yesterday saying she had received an email from the State Commissioner of the Differently Abled asking her to participate in a meeting with representatives of associations for Differently Abled People that was being convened to solicit opinions with a view to making the forthcoming elections an inclusive one; and she said she had replied saying we would all come and so I obediently put my earlier decisions re boycotting these elections on hold, and went to the venue of this meeting.

Our first exposure to this `Ground Floor Auditorium' was one with five steps at the entrance. Just as I was preparing to get hot under the collar, an obviously senior bureaucrat came and told us that we should go around to the side of the building which was equipped with ramps and was accessible. On going around the corner towards the side entrance, this is what we saw:

Accessible?!? 

Rubble and water and what not!

When we all finally managed to get in, everything was a bit chaotic - with an attempt being made by the three dignitaries on the dais that they were indeed making an effort to make this polling exercise a more inclusive one. Finally, one seemed to be receiving mixed signals and I still haven't decided what I will do come election day!