ReMindful : Election season believe- it-or-nots

As Election day approaches in Tamil Nadu, (April 24, Ben Waldron's birthday!), I've been advised to stock up on provisions and stay close to home - just in case. Anything can happen. Nothing may happen. I will hunker down for the most part. Besides, it's a state holiday, so no yoga. (Just when it's most needed!)

Chennai's bright and brilliant, if oppressively ubiquitous political graffiti, has been painted over to tamp down inter-party tensions. Voting machines have been tested and delivered to polling places in a "randomized" way to avoid fraud.

Police pulling over cars and inspecting trunks for alcohol, cash and gold "biscuits" are a common sight. Their efforts, though, are not 100 percent foolproof: Campaigns, by way of unofficial workers, are delivering tiffin boxes to constituents filled, not with dosas or idlis, but with 2000 rupees. Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the upstart Common man party, urged voters to take the money but vote for his candidate.

Tiffin

2,000 rupees

Liquor sales are banned for three days, so fist fights are breaking out in line at the state-run liquor outlets and some customers are "buying nine quarter bottles each, three for each of the dry days," according to the Times of India. Warnings of lethal moonshine abound and pawnshops are reaping a small fortune as drinkers hock jewelry to stock up on liquor.

Meanwhile, election officials in the city of Madurai claim that most complaints about illicit distribution of cash and freebies to buy votes are bogus. "We suspect that the calls come in to divert the attention of [our fraud teams] so that the party workers are free to distribute cash in other areas."

On Sunday, BJP candidate Narenda Modi (AKA NaMo) materialized Sunday evening in the form of an enormous 3D Hindutva hologram on Elliot's Beach to whip up support for his party's candidates in Tamil Nadu. One young viewer told the Times of India: "I don't know who he is but I have never seen anything like this before."

NaMo apparition on Elliot's Beach. Scary.

An India-born evangelist has arrived in India from his American base to India to campaign for Modi, confident that NaMo is committed to protecting the rights of Christians and Muslims, as well as Hindus. Hmmmm.

The Indian Supreme Court re-criminalized homosexuality earlier this year, but last week the court recognized transgender people as a "third gender." Go figure. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu's transgender citizens were the first in the country to be granted a right to their own sex in the form of a "T" rather than an "F" or "M" on their ration cards. What's more, a trans woman from Tamil Nadu is running for parliament.

And then, there is the Indian Lovers Party of Tamil Nadu, formed to support inter-caste lovers and to broker piece with angry parents.

MG. Ramachandran, (AKA MGR), the state's late, beloved film star/Chief Minister/deity, came back to life in the form of a lookalike, complete with matinee idol mustache, to reprise a 1975 film song, in a stunt held in support of the AIADMK party, which is led by J Jayalaithaa, (AKA Amma), who happens to have been MGR's frequent co-star, consort and heir to his political dynasty. Still with me?