VARANASI: Clad in sparkling white dhoti-kurta with a furrowed brow and scholarly look, Shivpujan Mishra can pass off as an ordinary old man. But at 107, he's ready to queue up at a booth and vote again in 2019 polls. Mishra can easily be one of India's oldest living citizen, who witnessed India's tryst with freedom to the Nehruvian era to an ideological shift in the country's political landscape. "This could be my last Lok Sabha election, but I will vote to uphold my country's democratic values," he said.At age 30, Shivpujan adopted khadi during Quit India Movement, and after independence he exercised his franchise in the first general election in 1952 to form the government of independent India led by Nehru. Since then, he has seen 14 Prime Ministers from Nehru to Modi and cast his vote in every election from panchayat to parliament till 2009.Though his world is confined to a room now, he's witness to upheavals in the past during pre and post-independence era, whether it was Quit India movement or Emergency. According to his voter identity card, Shivpujan is 107 years old. However, his high school certificate from Board of High School and Intermediate Education, United Province, shows he was born on May 23, 1914, making him 105 years old. He passed his high school exam from Sanatan Dharma Vidyalaya School, Benares (now Varanasi), and did MA in Hindi and Mathematics from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1948.Shivpujan, who retired as principal of DAV Inter College Ghazipur in 1974, is a native of Vayepur Devkali village in Ghazipur district. He’s currently staying with his youngest son, Vijay Shankar Mishra, and daughter-in-law Suman in Kaiwalyadham Colony in Durgakund area of Varanasi.Shivpujan, who likes to wear khadi and don a Gandhi cap, is seemingly fit, but has a fading memory. His son, Vijay, says his father couldn’t go to his native village for nine years due to old age and missed the chance to vote in the 2017 assembly and 2014 parliamentary elections. “Babuji often gets nostalgic, but refuses to give his opinion on politics, said Suman.Shivpujan was resting in his room when TOI team reached his house on Friday. Seeing outsiders, he immediately sat on his bed and put on his Gandhi cap. “God willing, I will vote in this election as we all have a responsibility towards the country,” he told TOI.

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