It is a crying shame that the one year I am offered a chance to be more than just an indifferent urban voter, or a curious onlooker at best, the Election Commission decides to step in. Divested of its customary adrenalin pulsating temper (high-energy buzz, high-decibel rallies, high-spirited meetings and high-horsepower cavalcades), thanks to the strictly enforced code of conduct on expenses, the elections were a rather tame affair for those looking in. A Herculean task for contestants, nevertheless!
As part of a ladies’ posse called upon by a friend to assist with door-to-door canvassing in possibly one of the most backward constituencies of Punjab, I witnessed the planning, organizing, strategizing and marketing that goes into wooing an electorate well-aware of the power of its vote. The celebrated warmth, hospitality and bonhomie of village folk dissipates tremendously in the face of traditional loyalties, political leanings and factional hostilities. A tiring albeit enriching experience, I captured some scenes whenever able.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
