Senior citizens brave rain to vote
Sitting with her left leg stretched is a bespectacled, frail woman. The 91-year-old who adjusts the pillow beneath her folded right leg says she is just back from voting.
Her voice is not clear. She is not concerned about that though. Kachama alias Katheeja appears amused at what is happening around her. For, she does not know that she is perhaps the oldest voter in the Mettupalayam Assembly constituency and the Coimbatore district, which has nine other constituencies.
Most questions posed to her in a decibel that may appear loud enough to other, evoke more or less the same answer – athellam enkku onnum theriyathu mone (I don’t know what you are asking, son).
Her grand daughter Arifa says that the woman has been voting for a long time. “She is keen to vote. On the day of polling she asks if we are going to vote as she remembers the date once it is said to her.” This time it was no different.
With a help of one of her daughters, Kachama went to a polling booth near the Muslim burial ground in the town to vote. Why she did she go to vote? “It is because it decides my fate,” is all she says.
To questions posed to her, Ms. Arifa interprets and says that as she has grown old, she keeps to herself.
She knows a few leaders and parties and does not make much distinction between one or the other. Her aunt took her to the polling booth and helped her press the button she wanted.
The nonagenarian is frugal with her food, watches very little television and spends most of her time praying with her rosaries.
People around her initially said Ms. Kachama was over 100 years old but the Electoral Photo Identity Card issued in 1995 records her age as 70.
A few km away from her, in Kannarpalayam is 80-year-old S. Kondathal. She remembers voting for M.G. Ramachandran and Indira Gandhi.
The woman, who lives out of the money from 100-day rural employment scheme, says she votes for a better morrow.
“I don’t want the current and the next generation to be spoilt by liquor. My vote is for prohibition.”
At many other places in the district, senior citizens were among those voted. Many used the wheel chair the district administration had provided. A few others took the help of their relatives who helped them reach the polling booths.
Sitting with her left leg stretched is a bespectacled, frail woman. The 91-year-old who adjusts the pillow beneath her folded right leg says she is just back from voting.
Her voice is not clear. She is not concerned about that though. Kachama alias Katheeja appears amused at what is happening around her. For, she does not know that she is perhaps the oldest voter in the Mettupalayam Assembly constituency and the Coimbatore district, which has nine other constituencies.
Most questions posed to her in a decibel that may appear loud enough to other, evoke more or less the same answer – athellam enkku onnum theriyathu mone (I don’t know what you are asking, son).
Her grand daughter Arifa says that the woman has been voting for a long time. “She is keen to vote. On the day of polling she asks if we are going to vote as she remembers the date once it is said to her.” This time it was no different.
With a help of one of her daughters, Kachama went to a polling booth near the Muslim burial ground in the town to vote. Why she did she go to vote? “It is because it decides my fate,” is all she says.
To questions posed to her, Ms. Arifa interprets and says that as she has grown old, she keeps to herself.
She knows a few leaders and parties and does not make much distinction between one or the other. Her aunt took her to the polling booth and helped her press the button she wanted.
The nonagenarian is frugal with her food, watches very little television and spends most of her time praying with her rosaries.
People around her initially said Ms. Kachama was over 100 years old but the Electoral Photo Identity Card issued in 1995 records her age as 70.
A few km away from her, in Kannarpalayam is 80-year-old S. Kondathal. She remembers voting for M.G. Ramachandran and Indira Gandhi.
The woman, who lives out of the money from 100-day rural employment scheme, says she votes for a better morrow.
“I don’t want the current and the next generation to be spoilt by liquor. My vote is for prohibition.”
At many other places in the district, senior citizens were among those voted. Many used the wheel chair the district administration had provided. A few others took the help of their relatives who helped them reach the polling booths.