A Survey Experience

Its the election fever.. thought I should write down my experience as a Field Investigator, for the Centre for Electoral Studies, Thiruvananthap'rm, assigned to a rustic village in Kozhikode Parliamentary constituency. I enjoyed the designation as part of a pre-poll cum post-poll survey during the General Elections 2009 in some way or the other. The post field investigator seems so hefty to me, guess what? I was a Field Investigator (though for juz 3 days), before reverting back to my age-old designation that of a student. But I tell you its is nothing special than tolerating the feel-sorry looks of old women and the doubtful looks of old men in Muslim dominated areas of Calicut, who are chosen randomly for the All Kerala opinion poll survey. Why are these men so cynical when they come to encounter simple questions in politics? Had I been a Muslim girl, I surely would have been recieved well in these homes notwithstanding the honest answers I may get. Women sympathise me by my appearance as naive and childlike (truth be told lol) and also so short of money, perhaps thats why they see me wandering for getting the right persons out in the sun. Some ask me whether it is some innovative game to vote for their candidate even before elections and invest them in a small ballot box (the casting of vote in a secret ballot used for the opinion polls).
End of the first day of a bumpy and weary survey ; I wasted half the day in searching the samples in wrong places, accidentally meeting a lovely old couple who served me lunch with great love for a stranger like me.
Day 2. There's no option left for me than to hire a bicycle to go by, if I had to locate the voters in the list provided to me. Now, thats something a novel approach as far as girls are in question. I had to somehow cajole a cycle mendor to hire me a cycle in the promise that I would return his gadget by evening. and he did provide me one! God bless....

And now to some election news...
The ACV pre- poll was telecast on TV on 12 and 13 April in which it predicts 13 seats for UDF and 7 seats for LDF with 4 pc voters remaining undecided.
Let us all wait and see how this election turns out to be, whether it be favour to UDF as the poll predicts or does it take a U-turn? 48 hours remain...