My one single vote is not likely to make a huge difference—representative democracy can be humbling that way, but I would like to think that I’ve done something to help get my city back on track. As I mentioned in a comment on the BBC Have Your Say website today, infrastructure is the defining problem here. Our streets are constantly potholed and falling apart, power cuts are a daily occurrence and the occasional water shortage is expected. On top of that, other than a relatively small, not too well maintained fleet of buses, our city lacks decent public transport, which, like all Indian cities, it sorely needs. One of the ‘top priorities’ of the candidate I voted for is to build a Delhi-like metro.

So, I do hope that Arun Bhatia, the gentleman I voted for, is elected in our constituency and things slowly start to improve. Although I’m not sure what his chances of winning are, he did get the third most votes (or 7% of all votes) in the last election.

Here’s a photo of my indelible ink-stained finger:

The lesser evil argument (voting for the more secular of the two mainstream parties) might seem like the way to go, but why keep sacrificing our constituency in an attempt to more precisely determine our national government? Coalitions are here to stay. A party that more closely reflects your values will enter into a coalition with the mainstream party that more closely reflects those very values.

So, vote for a candidate or party you believe in (or would like to believe in), and vote independent, because all the mainstream parties, whether you’d like to admit it or not, have a track record of violence and corruption, which should automatically disqualify them in our books, given that non-violence is the one most important value our country was founded on.

But most importantly, vote.

This little kitten, who we’re calling Dogmatix for now (she resembles Asterix’s dog), turned up at our house a few days ago looking skinny and was without a mother. So, we decided to adopt her. Meet the newest member of my family.

Here’s a portrait of her:

Big eyes

“This programme focuses on Bhojwani Academy, an alternative school catering to Pune’s more liberal middle class families.”

A message posted on the school site:

RBA and Pune featured on BBC

Yes, RBA is on the air! We have been validated by no less than BBC. As is well known, 5 directors from Lion TV UK spent the whole year in Pune last year to cover everything that happens in a typical school year in India. Well here we are then… on International TV, getting e-mails and telephone calls from everywhere, telling us how much everyone appreciates the work of RBA.

We are not of course about to rest on our laurels. The challenges continue, and our persistent effort to meet them do as well.

INDIAN SCHOOL will be available to Indian viewers from 3rd August on BBC WORLD.

Do visit the Open University site to know more about INDIAN SCHOOL.

A couple of days later, I chatted with Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur on their podcast net@nite. It’’s one of my favourite podcasts and it was such a thrill to hear myself during my drive to college this morning. Check out the episode, appropriately titled ”Pottrd” (mp3).

What made me chuckle was the last bit of the article:

Dayal will have to wait until 2008 for the iPhone to come out on the subcontinent or pay $1,000 for a grey-market import. “I’m saving my money,” he said. Apple had better hope he likes his iPhone once he gets it.

Am I really that influential? It’s possible, since most of my Apple-related stories become very popular on Digg. I”m humbled by the mere thought of being a person a firm as large as Apple has to impress. But that’’s one of the consequences of social media.

Incidentally, the article got promoted to the front page on Digg.

Thanks to Harry for the picture of the article in the dead-tree edition of the Sunday Times.

You can listen to the Journal’’s podcast episode on this article (mp3). One of the authors of the article, John Jurgensen talks about recent developments in social news, and Digg.