POV: Aritra NaskarDate: October 20, 2012Location: Sindh Delta & Jadavpur Villa – War Room, KolkataTime: 5:30 AM IST
A pale, salty breeze drifted off the Indus Delta at first light, carrying the clamorous cry of fishing boats returning from the Arabian Sea. From the roof of a raised brick polling station, I watched green fields shimmer beneath low‐hanging clouds. Date palms swayed like feathered sentinels, and mud-brick houses clustered along winding canals. Narrow footpaths—traces of ancient trade routes—wove through wetlands where flocks of egrets hovered above lotus blooms. The whole land felt suspended between water and sky, fertile and fragile.
Beside me, Katherine adjusted her hijab against the breeze. "This is where the first polling iris lowers its box," she murmured, nodding toward our Skybridge drone—Aurora II—hovering two hundred feet above the station. Below, village elders in embroidered lungis and brightly dyed shawls assembled: fishermen, farmers, small shopkeepers, women clutching clay water jugs.
I checked my tablet. "Operation Polling Iris – Sindh Delta Station #1: Ready to deploy." The ledger node named Sindh-I glowed emerald in the corner of the display.
"Stand by," I said. On screen, Aurora II's winch descended, cable unspooling in precise, hypnotic loops. A slender plexiglass ballot box—branded with UNIFLAG and Nova Tech symbols—came into view. The cable hook latched onto its lifting bar, and the box eased toward the thatched roof. Below, Tazim Khokhar, the station chief, secured the box on a flat platform, igniting cheers.
"Box deployed," came Rhea Mukherjee's voice from our satellite tent feed. "Ballot materials in place—voter registry loaded. Next station: Hyderabad."
I exhaled, catching a whiff of spicy lentil stew cooking in a clay pot. "Beautiful. Let's rotate the drones: Blizzard II to Hyderabad, Cloudfall II to Rohri, Duskflight II to Mirpur Khas."
Katherine tapped her tablet. "Teams will follow in transport vans—APCs stripped down to seating clusters, each with two polling volunteers and one ledger technician. They'll reach each box within the hour."
Below, fishermen drifted by in canoes, pausing to peer skyward at the drones. Their children waved excitedly as the drones emitted soft beeps of acknowledgement. The world's first mobile, drone‐deployed polling station had landed in one of the most remote reaches of the former Sindh Province.
Location: Jadavpur Villa – War RoomTime: 6:15 AM IST**
The war room hummed with activity beneath the villa's ancient arches. Screens displayed each station's status: Sindh-I: Open, Hyd-II: Deploying, Roh-III: On Station, MK-IV: Loading, PS-V (Punjab): Pending. A sixth ledger node—Baloch-VI—remained amber, awaiting rural connectivity.
Major General Sen and RAW Director Chopra studied the feeds. Chopra frowned. "I'm picking up a ledger‐level anomaly on Sindh-I: a brief packet flood at 6:12 AM PST—could be administrative, but unverified IPs from 'Red Crescent Net' show up."
I leaned forward. "That matches intercepts—Falcon Syndicate proxies probing our Sindh node. Priya, quarantine those packets in the honeypot and block any ledger writes until validation."
Priya nodded, fingers dancing over her console. "Packets quarantined. No irregular writes propagated. Ballot count remains pristine."
Chopra exhaled. "Good. But we must guard against ballot‐stuffing attempts. Locals here deeply distrust any external process."
Katherine met my eyes. "We'll deploy Echo Pass visual drones at each station—tiny quadcopters streaming live footage of ballot box integrity. Community monitors with Nova Tech‐issued tablets can verify in real time."
General Sen tapped his tablet. "And we'll supply solar micro-beacons to keep stations lit if clouds roll in. No dark hours until voting closes at noon local."
I nodded. "Excellent. Let's secure the perimeter."
Location: Hyderabad Edge – 8:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM IST**
Under a brilliant sun, the alabaster domes of historic mosques gleamed as Blizzard II descended toward a courtyard ringed by date stalls. Polling volunteers—schoolteachers in loose kurtas—stood ready. As the drone lowered the ballot box, local imam Ashraf Rizvi stepped forward. He lifted his gaze to the sky, offering a prayer before placing his thumbprint on the registry tablet. Around him, a circle of women in vibrant dupattas signed in, their faces alight with cautious hope.
Moments later, volunteer Farah tapped her ledger app. "All checksums matched. Opening station now."
A ripple of applause rose, echoing off whitewashed walls. Hyderabad's first drone-delivered polling station had taken flight—and landed—in the cradle of Sindh's ancient history.
Location: Jadavpur Villa – War RoomTime: 11:30 AM IST**
By late morning, three stations were open, one pending in Mirpur Khas, and Punjab's station was due in two hours. The ledger tabulated incoming votes in real time: saffron dots for Yes, green for No, representing each village's referendum on constitutional alignment.
On the holo-map, Sindh-I showed 12% turnout, Hyd-II 8%, Roh-III 5%. Baloch-VI hovered at 2%, struggling with satellite reception—our next challenge.
Chopra's brow furrowed. "Pakistan's interim governor in Karachi demands clearing the Baloch node pack—complains it's under Indian‐held satellite link."
Katherine tapped the ledger console. "We'll switch Baloch-VI to a locally hosted edge node—partnered with the Baloch interim council—while retaining global replication. That satisfies sovereignty."
I approved. "Implement now. And schedule a Skyseer fly‐past to boost link strength."
Priya nodded. "Executing hybrid node switch—80 seconds to failover."
The monitor shimmered: Baloch-VI: Failover Complete → Emerald. Gandhi's quote beneath the node glowed: "In the midst of darkness, light persists."
Location: Sindh Delta Station #1Time: 12:00 PM PST / 2:00 PM IST**
Aurora II hovered overhead as Tazim Khokhar closed the ballots—village women filing out with inked thumbs in proud defiance of dread. The lead volunteer, Shabana, announced: "Final count uploaded!" on a handheld tablet. The drone swivelled, beaming the tally to the ledger: Yes: 83% | No: 17%.
Below, children cheered and raised hands in unison. The desiccated delta, once a frontier of conflict, thrummed with the pulse of democracy.
Location: Jadavpur Villa – War RoomTime: 3:00 PM IST**
As results poured in—the Baloch refer-endum pending, Punjab's station delivering its 65% turnout—our screens began to flood with congratulatory dispatches from around the globe. Even Beijing's state media noted the unprecedented success of drone‐deployed voting in a post-partition territory.
General Sen allowed himself a rare smile. "Operation Polling Iris holds. The ledger stands unflinching."
Katherine reached across to squeeze my arm. "We did it."
I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing deeply. The valley's prayer flags, the silver river below, the hum of drones overhead—all converged in a single truth: when technology meets trust, even the most fractured lands can bloom with the seeds of democracy.
And as the Himalayan wind swept anew across Salt Lake, I knew our ledger's light would guide them—one vote, one ration, one promise at a time—toward a future where every hidden paradise could truly be heard.