Raise my hand, enrol my name/Stamp my vote, never be the same/Find my voice, speak my mind/Tell the world. Tarak tak tak... (Excerpts from Tarak tak tak )

Shillong: The election season is here again and what better way to encourage youngsters to enrol and vote than the sound of music?

To give impetus to the voting process, the office of the Meghalaya chief electoral officer has brought out a music video, Tarak tak tak.

The video, a part of the systematic voters education and electoral participation programme, has been written, arranged and performed by Summersalt, of Bollywood film Rock On 2 fame, and other artistes.

It is an assortment of big sounds - from electronic dance music and rock guitar to bag pipes. There are also elements of rap music and choir harmonies sung by Aroha choir. Apart from modern instruments, the song has sounds of indigenous music in the form of the duitara of the Khasis, skin instruments called ka ksing and ka bom from the Khasi hills and the dama from the Garo hills. The lyrics are also an assortment of the major languages - English, Khasi-Pnar and Garo - giving it a pan-Meghalaya touch.

It took a little more than five months to prepare the video, which is now going viral on social media.

Singer-songwriter Kit Shangpliang of Summersalt said, "It was an honour to work with the chief electoral officer and we wanted to make it a big project with big sounds. We are happy to hear that the people are loving the song because of the excitement in it, the straightforwardness of the message and the brilliant video done by our creative team led by Kamki Diengdoh."

Duitara player Ador Shangpliang said, "To have people of all ages and from different communities sing the song is a nice feeling. We wanted this to be a people's song ." Singer Pynsuk Syiemiong said the project was "inclusive", involving new talented artistes, musicians, people with disabilities, adventure sports lovers and college students. "This is because it is not just about Summersalt but about every stakeholder in the election process," she added.

Meghalaya chief electoral officer F.R. Kharkongor said the idea was to reach out to youngsters to exercise their franchise. There are 17,68,515 voters in Meghalaya and he aims to take the figure to more than 18 lakh before the state votes for its new legislature early next year. Youngsters who will turn 18 by the cut-off date of January 1, 2018, will be encouraged to enrol.

"We will organise many more programmes, like street plays, across the state. From October 23, we will launch state-level awareness on the voter-verifiable paper audit trail," he added.

As the state prepares to vote for the tenth Meghalaya legislature, these excerpts from Tarak tak tak, "We will not be shaken, we will be the change...We will walk the talk, we will stand to gain..." could be the guiding principles for those who would be part of the democratic process.