Every Indian election is an eye-opener that teaches us something new, says author Ruchir Sharma. Every one has its shocks and its surprises, anointing new political heroes and discarding old ones. Every one gives us a sense of what India's people care most about and dream of, as it was with the latest election, which ended last week with a landslide victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

For a quarter of a century, Mr Sharma has led a caravan of journalists and intellectuals that has chased Indian election campaigns, criss-crossing the country by road, through its rural heartlands, small towns and big cities, travelling the equivalent of a lap around the earth, interviewing voters, candidates, activists, political fixers and bureaucrats to get the story of what makes India's democracy tick.