Despite the lazy evening, there is excitement, colour and music in the air.

Men and women dressed in colourful dresses have already assembled at the road junction from where Baalu is to start his campaign. Every one of them is in a festive mood. A well-decorated jeep stands on the road and two singers with microphones are perched on top.

The volume has been cranked to such an extent that words are not really clear. But who cares? The crowd seem to be enjoying every minute of it.

When one of the singers starts Manmada Raasa, the most popular song of recent times, even elderly women start dancing deliriously. A woman who looks like a grandmother swings her hips much to the delight of the younger crowd. They egg her on.

After a while, she stops. But the moment she notices our photographer, she shouts and starts dancing, 'come, come take a picture of me dancing... Manmada raasa...' she too bursts into the song.