Being able to help the community is extremely rewarding

Fantastic! It feels great when we are on the doorsteps of the residents or meet them during monthly surgeries or simply through emails coming through. We are in touch with them throughout the year and there’s so much confidence and trust which they have in me and my whole team when they tell us their issues. Being able to help with their issues is a different level of satisfaction. It’s extremely rewarding when people appreciate what you're doing.

That's one big plus point, I would say, that we have as councillors, that we are able to reach out to the residents and they are able to reach out to us. That really is a great part about being able to sort things out for the residents.

Very difficult to balance being a mum as well as. I have a 16-year-old and a five-year-old. But my husband, luckily for us, and luckily for me, has been working from home and has been able to shoulder a lot more responsibilities. That's how I'm able to do my work as a councillor and also take care of the house because he has been an immense support. My kids have been immense support.

They do understand that mum is a councillor now; I have to go out, I have to attend meetings, I have to meet people, and all sorts of things. They understand that mum will be there for a less amount of time. I'm also working part-time. Well, basically, the whole family is working towards it. The whole family is shouldering the responsibilities.

My ward colleagues and local conservative group have also been a huge support system for me

Initially, I was more in a very niche group, but since becoming councillor and stepping into politics, I have been meeting more and more of the Indian diaspora, whether it is invitations for community events or about issues related to the British Indian community. People come and tell me about it, be it some bullying issues that are faced by people of our community or something else. I try to take that up and I try to put their voice in front of the council. I'm also the member of the Corporate Parenting Group. I’m a shadow executive for children and young people. I try to raise their voice in the council for them.

I was always there in the community, but people now know me more, and I have gotten to know more people so the connect with the diaspora has been stronger than ever.

I'm very positive. People are happy about the work that I've done throughout the year. They do realise the hard work that has been put into getting things done, be it bins issues, or potholes, because we have a really huge problem of potholes in Trafford. But we are trying to do as much as we can. I keep reporting potholes. Most of the times, they do get repaired. Sometimes we get told this is not a big enough pothole, even though people’s cars are getting damaged because of it. But that's how it is sometimes. I keep trying to get things sorted. It's quite positive because people are happy about my work locally. I'm hoping to become a councillor again. I'm hoping to be re-elected.

Yes. There is not much representation, even though we do have a Hindu Prime Minister today in UK. But overall, in local politics that I have seen, at least in Trafford, we don't really have much of Hindu representation. I would really like to urge people to get into politics, get into policymaking. Politics is not dirty. It's all about policymaking, and it's all about making your voice heard. It's important that our voice, the British Hindu and the British Indian voice is heard. People should know what we are about. People should know that we are the people who are abiding by the rule of the law. Obviously, because it is so important to have that representation of what we are, it's important that there are more and more people from our community who should join politics and step up to represent the community in politics. I would really like to urge people to do that.