Ballot

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Since a month her husband came home drunk and without any money.

How could she run the family? It was just one woman earning that too as a housemaid. 2 children and a bedridden mother-in-law to be taken care.

She had seen many elections come and go. Nothing had changed her life. And never she had bothered to vote.

Her landlady had taught her a lesson in the last month. “Voting is everybody’s right. By voting the right candidate, everybody’s life would change. Including yours”, she had said.

Her husband had almost forgotten carpentry. Since the time the elections was announced, he stopped working for the furniture shop. He was now a campaigner.

He went to the “People party” office every morning. He held a flag in hand and went on a procession behind the party candidate to the villages. Shouting praises at times. Free food and free alcohol was up for grabs.

“A man would sacrifice anything for alcohol”, she thought.

Election day came. He had not got up. He had excessive alcohol the day before. She did not bother to wake him up.

She went to the polling booth to exercise her ballot for the first time in life. She remembered her landlady’s words – “Vote the right candidate”. In the queue, she met her friends and spoke to them about voting and shared her choice, even before voting.

As she went to cast her vote, she was clear with her choice – “Anybody other than People party.”

That night, her husband got up just in time for dinner. She had a victorious smile. A smile that showed that “People party” had missed the family’s 2 votes and some of her friends'.