Asian Window

In The Telegraph, Calcutta, Sankarshan Thakur’s report from Lahore on the eve of elections in Pakistan:

It’s odd to bring you the first report on an election on the last day of campaigning. But in a sense it’s fitting because there has really been no campaign to speak of.

Lahore should have been a raucous swirl of rival bandwagons today as the deadline ran out; it was merely its daily humdrum self. The babble all belonged to the weekend bazaars; if this campaign ever had a decibel, it was too low to catch the street’s ear.

“Oye, lection te atte-jatte rainge, bauji, Chaman ke angoor le lo, kal is rate pe nai millange,” countered the fruit vendor in the midday mill of Mall Road, perhaps a little irascible that he was having to waste precious time talking politics.

“Hamare paas to na koi vote maangne aaya, na hum kisiko denge.” (Elections will come and go, buy these grapes from Chaman, you won’t get this rate tomorrow. Nobody came to seek my vote and I am not giving it to anyone.)

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