Two vehicles, two very different lives, but one mission. To vote and elect the country’s leaders.

Sindri girl, Yashoda Kumari, 29, who works as software engineer in Wipro, Noida, covered 1,350 km on her Royal Enfield bike to reach her hometown on Friday and vote on Sunday at De Nobili School.

In Jamshedpur, 63-year-old polio-stricken Arun Ram, a resident of Sonari Kumharpara, travelled 8km on his tricycle to reach his voting venue, Jusco School South Park in Bistupur.

Why didn’t Yashoda simply book a flight in this heat? “I wanted to come on my bike as I could stop at various places and ask people to vote,” said Yashoda, daughter of grocer Kamlesh Dubey and homemaker Geeta, who started on May 9 from Noida at 4am and reached Sindri on May 10 after 6pm.

“I stopped at Etawah, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Dehri-on-Son, Sasaram and Gaya. I met a large number of women at Varanasi, they were interested in what I had to say,” she claimed. “I appealed to people everywhere to come out of their homes and vote in large numbers to strengthen democracy.”

Yashoda, who left for Noida on her bike at 10am on Sunday after voting, made no secret of her poll preference, BJP candidate P.N. Singh. “This election is crucial as many parties have teamed up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi but he will emerge successfully from these challenges,” she said.

Yashoda Kumari shows her inked finger in Sindri, Dhanbad. Picture by Shabbir Hussain

In Jamshedpur, Ram pushed his tricycle efficiently to the polling booth where officials helped him beat the queue came up as a shining example when it comes to using one’s mandate.

Polling officials helped Ram to slip into the booth by requesting a long queue of people to give way. Inside the booth, he used his hands on the wheels to propel the tricycle to reach the EVM. It took some back and forth, but he managed. The long beep from the voting gadget assured him that he had cast his franchise.

Ram is jobless, he lives alone at a room given by an acquaintance in Sonari and confesses he gets by only because “people in general are kind to me”.

He’s always voted, he said. “I have endured a lot of hardship in life without complaining, especially after my parents passed away, but I have always voted. Everyone should vote, no matter how poor. It’s our duty,” he said, but refused to divulge who he voted for.

He has very little money, but he’ll have tea and biscuits at a roadside shop and lunch at another Sonari eatery by the road. “These come for free,” he smiled. “As I said, the world is a kind place.”