‘Are we ready to leave?’, my mother asked. I nodded. I thought, well I am ready to go to the polling station, but am I ready to cast my vote? The day had finally come when I had to make a choice, or rather an informed choice. This begot another question, how informed was I? Which candidate deserved my vote?

As we drove to our destination, I recalled someone having said that he would vote for a particular candidate as he had done a lot of work in his neighbourhood. I found his logic flawed. That’s not to say that his choice was wrong, but was he looking at the bigger picture? Would he not use the roads outside his neighbourhood? And what about the city? And the country?

On what basis should we make our choice? I remember watching the 2012 US Presidential debates with great enthusiasm. The audience for the debate was an eclectic mix of students, senior citizens, working professionals, et al. And they got a rare opportunity to address questions directly to the candidates. I believe such debates should be a part of our electoral process too. Such a dialogue would enable us to know, compare and contrast the opinions of our future leaders on topics ranging from education, safety and empowerment of women, poverty and prices to foreign policy. And such debates should not only be held at the national level, between candidates vying for the post of the Prime Minister, but also at the regional level.

In addition, the power of social media can and should be leveraged by voters and candidates to reach out to and connect with each other (For example, organising Google Plus Hangouts). Such initiatives would only increase awareness and awareness leads to better choices. In the end, each and every one of us needs to exercise his or her right to vote. And if we don’t, we have no right to complain later.

Minutes later we reached our destination, a senior secondary government school. Our voter IDs were checked and we made our way to one of the classrooms. As I stood in queue, I glanced at a notice board mentioning the names of candidates fielded by various political parties. Once inside, I was greeted by familiar marginal cost and total cost curves drawn on the blackboard. Next, my left index finger is marked with ink and I head towards the EVM machine.

I wonder if any one of us remembers Gandhiji’s Talisman, which found a mention in our NCERT textbooks. How many of us actually apply the test mentioned therein, when we are in doubt and have to make a choice?