I will remember the words of this old man standing next to me while I was trying to demand an enquiry and punitive consequences: “Yeh sirf bol rahe hain, yeh Uttar Pradesh hai, yahan kuch nahi badlega” (these people are only talking, this is Uttar Pradesh, nothing is going to change).

The voting started at around 8 am. The people of UP who have been conditioned to receive answers that evade responsibility, carried on!

After I cast my vote, I was ushered out by a female constable for attempting to ‘interrupt the election process’ and threatened arrest. So much for starting my day thinking this is the first step to changing the future, hoping that I will bring my children into a country governed by a more responsible government, to an anti-climax where I was threatened to be arrested for asking questions about the complacence in the process.