Laxmi Uprety, a 75-year-old voter from Jhapa in eastern Nepal, has been actively involved in the election campaigns since the first election held after the restoration of democracy in 1991. Despite having no formal education, getting married at a young age, and becoming a mother of eight, Uprety understands and values the importance of politics. Most of her family members were directly or indirectly involved with one political party or the other. She says politics before democracy was terrifying. “We had to witness a lot of bloodshed just because a certain political party believed violence was necessary for peace,” she says. She shudders when she recalls how terrifying those times were. Abductions and killings were everyday occurrences. She lost two of her maternal uncles because of political rivalry. “Luckily, my father’s younger brother managed to save his life when people came for his head. He fled to the capital and went on hiding,” she says. After democracy was restored, Uprety says people were finally able to openly support the party of their choice without having to risk their lives.

During the 1991 election, Uprety was one of the many people who were involved in the campaigns. “Election campaigns used to be so different back then,” she says. She remembers going from one house to another asking for votes. She gets misty-eyed as she says she enjoyed them a lot. “This was when there was no social media or even mobile phones. Door-to-door campaigns were the only way to appeal for votes or promote your candidate,” she says.

One thing that always upsets her is how politics was (and is still) largely a male-dominated sphere. There weren’t many women supporters, let alone candidates. Worse, women, especially those from underprivileged communities, were not aware of their voting rights or even the basic rules of voting. “They had never seen a ballot paper so they didn’t understand where to put the stamp. They also had no idea whom they should vote for and why,” says Uprety. She always carried sample ballot papers with her as she wanted to teach women how to vote. As a supporter of congress, she doesn’t deny that she might have influenced many women’s voting choices while teaching them how to vote. But her primary motive was to teach women how to exercise a basic right that might someday make their community a better place for them. “It was my way of empowering women, I guess,” she says. Now, she thinks things are a lot better. Elections have become quite fancy, if you could call them that, she says. Campaigns are easier and more accessible through social media and everybody seems to be aware of their voting rights. People, she says, also seem to be a lot clearer on whom they want to elect and why. But she misses the old days when election time was community time. Families in the village would mingle about and discuss things. “That was the best part of door-to-door campaigns for me,” she adds. Since there are so many other alternatives nowadays, people are way less on the street than they used to be. As someone who loves talking to and interacting with people, Uprety says she sometimes thinks she could have done a lot more—had more of an impact in politics maybe—if only she had a proper educational background. “Maybe I could have been a politician too,” she says. She finds herself daydreaming about this sometimes but she doesn’t dwell on it for long. What’s done is done, she says, no use crying over spilt milk and all that. Talking about her involvement with this year’s federal elections, she laments she hasn’t been able to be as immersed in it as she would like. Her health, she says, doesn’t allow it otherwise she would have loved to participate in door-to-door campaigns. She was quite disappointed about not being able to vote in the local elections as she was in Kathmandu to undergo surgery. During the election results, however, she was glued to the TV. Her family had to drag her on walks because she wouldn’t get up from the couch. She feared she would miss a crucial turning point. “I’m fascinated by the election. Its importance isn’t lost on me,” she says.