It is tough being a Tamilian in Tamil Nadu: you face a Hobson's choice every election. But believe me, it is tougher if you are a Tamilian living away from home. People in other states believe it is your duty to explain to them how Amma can still contest after being convicted. In the run-up to this election, my friends expected me to keep them regularly updated on how Jayalalitha was doing. Needless to say, this put enormous strain on this Non-Resident Tamilian in Hyderabad. I scoured The Hindu diligently every day. But I was none the wiser. The national editions could cover only so much in 24 pages, what with elections happening for five Vidhan Sabhas. And even those few reports had more a national perspective than local. I had to depend on Kumudam and Ananda Vikatan, fortnightly magazines like Kumudam Reporter and Junior Vikatan, and, to a lesser extent, on Nakkeeran of the Veerappan interview fame. But the analyses I found were never topical as these magazines took a few days to reach Hyderabad. I got most of my information -- and, incidentally, the best entertainment -- through television channels Sun TV and Jaya TV. Dravidian parties, you see, don't have to fight for time on regular TV channels; they have their own. The two parties had filled their channels with propaganda and counter. Sun TV repeatedly showed me Amma's footwear, sari and jewellery collections, and the College Bus Tragedy, while Jaya TV provided many a titter with potshots at its enemies. I also spent many late nights watching the detailed constituency level analysis on Raj TV, and the discussions on the new Bharathi TV (from the Zee stable). It was by sheer accident that I stumbled on www.juniorvikatan.com. It finally quenched my thirst for hot news. Every report in every newspaper, every magazine, every Web site and every TV channel -- barring Sun TV and Jaya TV, of course -- led one to the conclusion that the results would be too close to hazard a guess. But the fight between Amma and Stalin's Appa just fizzled out. The run-up was spectacular. But the result came too soon and was one-sided, leaving one with a feeling of watching the Pakistan-Australia final in the last World Cup once again. The Election Commission played spoilsport by using electronic voting machines. I am not referring to the bogus votes which otherwise could have tilted the margin. Because of the EVMs, the trends were clear within three hours of counting starting. To someone who was expecting telecasts like the ones during the 1998 and 1999 general elections, this was a great disappointment. Then, it had taken almost two full days to figure out who was winning. This had generated endless entertainment. The analysis was interspersed with the Congress, Left and BJP leaders taking potshots at each other. This time, the BJP top brass went underground. Prannoy Roy on Star News had his man Rajdeep Sardesai repeatedly clarifying as to why only very few BJP leaders -- that too belonging to the second-rung -- were appearing. Needless to say, this denied the considerable entertainment value that this election offered. Talking of entertainment, only Sun TV justified itself. It was hilarious to watch their anchors discussing how the TN public could have taken such a "wrong" decision. Mind you, not why the DMK lost, but why/how the TN public made a "wrong" decision! Jaya TV, for its part, celebrated all the way, with Amma's duets with MGR being played again and again. "I have tried in the past too, but I could never understand you guys," my friend Vamsi called me in the night to remark. Postscript: I firmly believe that elections are the cornerstones of democracy and that they serve a higher purpose than providing entertainment to people like me. Hemanth Kumar will not attend work till he figures out how to explain away the election result to his colleagues. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh Tell us what you think of this diary
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