Rajasthan polls: First-timers join the party with centurions

Surabhi Maheshwari, a first time voter, cast her vote at a polling booth inside the University of Rajasthan. The moment she stepped out, her friends swarmed around her like fans around a celebrity. It was nothing short of a feat for her. She even obliged one of them with a photograph as a memoir, which would make its way to the facebook.  “I am happy and proud to vote in the elections. I am sure to get many likes by my friends soon,” chirped Surabhi.

Some 70 km from where Surabhi voted, where the high-rises melt into a countryside landscape and metalled roads give way to dirt roads, an elderly couple who have seen a 100 winters, were braving another to cast their vote in a polling booth at Dudu.

The jingling of bell fitted on their tri-cycle handle drew the attention of a group of local politicians who were discussing the polls. It rung again. The intensity of the ring cried out in anger. This time, they made way for the couple riding the tri-cycle. 

Married for sixty-five years, the weakened eyesight and polio-affected legs of 100-year-old Arnad and his 88-year-old better-half Bhuli Devi did not deter them from casting their 5th vote in last thirty years.

What keeps them going even at this age? The man had the answer. “We have seen it all, how difficult times the country has been through. We value our freedom, hence we vote every year,” said Arnad adjusting his glasses. However, he regrets he couldn’t vote last year due to illness.

“I vote because it is a good thing to choose your leaders,” the woman said with a satisfied look on her face. She added blowing the air on her index finger. “I would say when we can vote at this age, why can’t the young men and women do it. We need good leaders to lead the young and the old so that no one stays uneducated like we two remained,” Bhuli Devi added.

“We would continue voting unto death,” the old-man spoke through his wrinkles before he peddled away with his wife.