It was January 2014 and Maya Vishwakarma had just quit the cosy comfort of her job in California to pursue her idealitic dream of cleansing her motherland of corruption and nepotism. Riding on a high wave of optimism following the unprecedented success of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi elections, and inspired by the noble vision of its leader Arvind Kejriwal, this young woman landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport airborne on the wings of hope.
As Maya passed through security check to board a connecting flight from New Delhi to Bhopal, she didn't realize she had presented herself at the VIP counter. Seeing her in the distinctive AAP t-shirt, a security guard remarked jocularly, "Madam, ye khaas aadmi ke liye hain aapka ticket to aam aadmi ka hai!" (Madam. this line is for special persons, your ticket is for common people!) Another police officer said, "Please come this way. We will treat you as a special person today because your party is doing such excellent work." After an agonizing five hour wait at the airport, the airline announced that the flight to Bhopal was cancelled due to fog.This was followed by much cursing and shouting on the part of the enraged passengers. One man remarked, "Only Kejriwal can make these people alright! They cancel flights at the last moment and waste everybody's time." There were more surprises in store for Maya. When she finally reached Bhopal, she boarded a train to her hometown and then hailed a taxi. A casual conversation with the taxi driver revealed that he was from neighboring Bihar. On being told that Maya was an AAP volunteer, he remarked, "Madam, Bihar ka batayiye yadi vahan per AAP wale aaye hum sabko bolenge ki AAP ko hi vote dein" (If AAP fields candidates in Bihar, we will tell everyone to vote for AAP.). A humble village lass from the country's heartland of Madhya Pradesh, Maya had braved poverty and misfortune to seek higher education at the Rani Durgavati University in Jabalpur. After completing her post graduation in Biochemistry, she had begun research in nuclear medicine at the AIIMS, New Delhi. Migrating to the United States in 2009, she had briefly pursued doctoral studies at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, before moving to the Silicon Valley area where she was part of a team involved in developing new AML vaccines and bone marrow gene therapy. It had been a long journey from the remote village of Mehargaon to the heartland of the global IT industry. For an ordinary woman, this would have been the fulfillment of the ultimate dream. But Maya was made of sterner stuff. While working in California, Maya was actively involved in working for the AAP in the United States. She reached out and signed up new volunteers, helped organize local events, co-ordinated the weekly meetings, participated in the Call Delhi campaign among other campaign activities. She recorded the various events on video<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTv1PJYhPAo>, painstakingly edited them and loaded them on Youtube and shared them on social media and other avenues. She was physically far removed from the political action on the ground, but for all practical purposes, her heart and mind were steeped in India. Besides her commitment to AAP, Maya had a deep interest in Hindi poetry. She went on to organize a global online Kavi sammelan with Hindi poets participating from around the globe. More recently, she faced a personal tragedy - her brother was killed in an accident. She returned to India to mourn his death. Later, she decided to apply for the AAP nomination from Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. The party soon decided to field her as their candidate<http://my.aamaadmiparty.org/candidate/madhyapradesh/hoshangabad.html> . And now Maya was back in her homeland after an exposure to the western world. The party's open selection process had enabled her to come this far. Now what next? Can a young woman make it with sheer energy and enthusiasm? The jury is still out on this. Meanwhile, Maya is out on a grueling ground campaign, walking the streets, pounding the pavement, meeting people, hearing their issues, seeking their votes, hoping to represent them in India's parliament. Her excited friends and well wishers around the globe are helping in her campaign through various means like social media campaigns<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=223086467885268&set=vb.153326071527975&type=2&theater>, calling campaigns<http://emc3.aamaadmiparty.org/loksabha2014/?campaign=call4maya>, video editing <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g5ZUHiSxJc> etc. Now just think about it for a moment. Is Maya's story even plausible in the India you grew up in and are familiar with? When was the last time an "aam aadmi" could simply apply and hope to get nominated as a party's candidate? When was the last time you heard of "any" political party in India even considering such an open process? No one knows what the future holds for Maya and scores of similar candidates, who are contesting this Lok Sabha election, for the very first time. But one thing is for sure, this story would not have been even remotely possible in a pre-AAP era. 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