AND, SO IT BEGINS. Though poll fever was in the air and the heat was building up, the true surge came when the election dates were announced. But, in some constituencies, things are a little slow even now. My constituency, Ernakulam, is one such place, as the BJP has not announced a candidate here yet. The Congress is going with the incumbent, Hibi Eden, and the Left Democratic Front has fielded a surprise in newbie K.J. Shine, a schoolteacher and union leader. When the BJP’s candidate is announced—and if it is a surprise choice,
as rumoured—the full force of a contest will be seen.
This issue is our first cover story on the upcoming general elections and it looks at young India’s feelings about it. Writer-journalist Chandrahas Choudhury travelled countrywide to feel the pulse of the youth, and it comes through well in his comprehensive cover story. There is young Anwesh Satpathy who says that he might vote NOTA as he is not happy with the options. Narayan Munda, 21, from Jharkhand says that his parents have asked him to shun politics, study and get a government job. Mumbai girl Shachi Ankolekar mourns the loss of safe spaces in which differing opinions can be aired. Young India is thinking. Young India is concerned. Young India is wiser than we think it is.
A sort of addition to the cover story is Senior Assistant Editor Soni Mishra’s excellent interview with O.P. Rawat, former chief election commissioner. Rawat discusses electoral bonds and his reservations about the concept.
To sweeten the heavy dose of politics, in @leisure we have Correspondent Nirmal Jovial’s article on how directors and writers in the Malayalam film industry are becoming more comfortable with camera-facing roles. He has pegged it on the cast of the very successful Manjummel Boys.
Special Correspondent Anjuly Mathai’s article is on photographer Deepti Asthana and her journey from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, to the international stage. She captures Asthana’s artistic journey and small joys, like the bit where she revisits a village in Uttarakhand and meets the young girls who were her subjects a decade ago. “They laughed a lot when they saw their childhood photographs that I had shot,” she says. “It was probably the only photographs of themselves that they had ever seen.” Do you know who took your first photo?
The article I enjoyed the most should be Deputy Chief of Bureau Namrata Biji Ahuja’s take on how human intelligence is still relevant, despite the leaps that electronic surveillance has made. I think spies and spymasters have exceptional observation skills and a prodigious memory. After a break of decades, I recently ran into my batchmate from college, K.C. Verma, the former director of the Research and Analysis Wing. He referred to me by my pet name, and it beats me how he could remember it despite the long break. I think he and his tribe have hard disks embedded in their heads to store, process and retrieve so much data so fast.