Shyam Saran Negi was 34 when he cast independent India's first-ever vote

Shyam Saran Negi's story has a touch of destiny, painted in the brush strokes of history. It is the story of how a little-known school teacher from a little-known village helped to mint a brand new India, 63 years ago.Now 97, Mr Negi is independent India's first voter and the oldest.In the October of 1951, the threat of a bitter winter and snowy roads allowed Himachal Pradesh to vote some months earlier than the rest of India in the fledgling country's first ever general election. The first Indian to cast his vote in the tehsil of Chini was Shyam Saran Negi, then 34.Six decades later, Mr Negi hasn't forgotten the emotions that were evoked by that fateful day. "(I still remember that day. The joy, the pride)," he says in a video released by Google urging people to vote.Mr Negi, a committed believer in the democracy he helped construct, has never missed an election since. Now bent by the years and clutching a walking stick, Shyam Saran Negi says neither snow nor rain has never stopped him from casting his vote.

Watch his inspirational story here: