The college is fortified like never before. For once, we are all scrabbling around in search of the ID tag when we near the Adm Block. The police guard the block like it's a Category Z subject. We are questioned even if we bat our eyelids for a fraction of a second longer...or move the arm suspiciously. 

Bags are searched for arms, ammunitions and other inflammable materials and sadly, the only inflammable I had was my 'vatha kolambu' for lunch, as a police official sadly found on examination of the numerous storage spaces of my bag. In fact, I found a long lost pencil of mine during the search!

Well, just in case you thought that the security was for the safety of the staff and students, you are way beyond the mark. Ballot boxes are stored in LI and L2 halls and the D1 hall. Guns, rifles registers and crackling belt phones on a special frequency are sighted and heard ( I meant the last one here) all over. Even our parking spaces have been taken over by swarming hordes of policemen and one has to apologetically park it in the usual place.

I take refuge in the lab, since power supply to the department has been cut off and will remain so till the counting day. 

We all take long detours to reach the departments, since the block has been made a single entry point. All of us have a lost a few kilos and look  like shadows of our own selves...

I'm sure, once they leave, I'm going to miss having my bike guarded through the day...and my ID card will find its way back into the dark nether zones of my bag.

Life will never be the same again, till another election is held.