India has a rich tradition of inspiring and bizarre odysseys. In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi marched to the sea and illegally picked up a grain of salt to protest against what he saw as the iniquities of British rule. Last month, one man decided to totter across the country on stilts with the goal of world peace on his mind.
But quite what drives a 76-year-old deputy prime minister to spend a month travelling the length and breadth of India by bus at the beginning of another scorching summer is a harder question to answer.
Is it a legitimate attempt to take the government's message to the voters in the weeks before a general election? Or is Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani's Bharat Uday Yatra (India Shining Journey) a long-winded attempt to recast himself as a more moderate heir-apparent to a popular but ageing prime minister, to shed his image of a Hindu hardliner hell-bent on ripping up a secular, tolerant constitution? The most likely answer is a bit of both. The bigger question for most Indians, however, seems to have been: why bother?
As his bullet-proof bus swung on to the dusty back roads and city streets of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh last month, Mr Advani managed to come across as both combative and uninspiring. With a cricket series with arch rival Pakistan in full swing, his hoarse stump speeches were hardly a major draw. The crowds were thin and listless, and heavily populated by party supporters. But Mr Advani tried his best. 'Very soon, every village will have a road, a hospital, a school and every other basic requirement of the people will be met,' he croaked. He then laid into the opposition Congress party. But there was none of the fire-and-brimstone that has characterised past yatras, nothing to hint at his more militant past.
For Mr Advani, read the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party he helps lead: the will-the-real-Advani-stand-up puzzle fits the BJP-led government just as well.
As the Indian electorate begins voting tomorrow, exactly what people are being asked to choose between is less clear-cut than ever.