Vote for…. Elections @STS

Trust me, I deleted 50% complete posts draft twice. But as the day ends, I have to do my alphabet E. Therefore, finally I put a tape on the delete button. ;)

The reason for my anxiousness is the topic itself.

E, for Elections

Integral part of my school memories. An event which molded me as a person I am today. STS has annual elections, a replica of the Indian polls, held every 5 years (Recent Indian history has seen a change in this frequency though). STS conducted a fully democratic process of electing the cabinet.

St Thomas’ Cabinet was headed by a Prime Minister. The PM had two Deputies. And then there were a set of 10 or 12 ministers. Each minister had two deputies. The school house captains and vice captains were a part of the cabinet as well. I will talk about the houses in another post. There were 4 representatives from Class X, one from each section. Class XI and XII had 2 reps each.

STS Cabinet, Year 1996

Yesterday, my school friend, Manju Oberoi, whatsapped me. Talking about my blog posts, she went  back to yesteryears. Year 1994. It was my first election campaign. 

Once again, I have the disappointing and helpless feeling – such incidents and events need the pictures to do justice. I will update the posts once I procure pictures from various sources.

Anyways, the election campaign used to bring studies to a total standstill. From pamphlets, to print banners (cloth and paper), handmade posters, class to class campaigning, morning assembly campaigning, election songs. Well, we had it all. It was a mayhem. Total commotion. Friends forming groups, campaigning for their choice of candidate. Juniors timidly followed.

And then there was the D day, the voting day. Secret ballot (what did you thing, eh). No gundagardi, no dabangbaazi, no chance of booth captures. It was secret voting. One by one, you go, cast your vote on specially printed ballot papers, mark the one you want to elect.  Results were declared a day or two later, once the outgoing cabinet counted the votes. 

When I was selected for the first time, in Class 10, I can never forget the moment my name was announced. It was unexpected. I was pretty sure I can never win, the opposition was very strong. (I know you are reading darling!! :) ) But the moment is engraved in my memory. I don’t remember the result days of class XI and class XII. They were not unexpected.

The operations of the cabinet, and other details may come in separate posts. The STS school elections are the closest the teenage kids come to democracy.

For 3 years I was a part of the St Thomas’ School Cabinet. This fills me with great pride.

This post is dedicated to the A-to-Z blogging challenge - the largest Blog Challenge in the history of Blogkind. My selected theme is "memories of St. Thomas' "- my Alma mater. This is the fifth post of the challenge, and is linked to the letter E -  E for Elections.

  

Linking this post to UBC too.