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She's 16, Indian, and a mayor in Europe

By B B Nagpal

She is just sixteen - going on seventeen, an age when most girls are just beginning to feel the vibrations of approaching adulthood. She is Indian, which imbibes in her traditions that go back thousands of years. And she is a mayor in a tourist resort in Holland.

Sumit Kaur Atwal, a student of the international school at the Hague, was first elected to represent the school on the 23-member students council at Madurodam - which is named after George Maduro, a soldier who died in the World War II. Later, she became the first foreigner to be elected mayor of the tourist town, which is a mini-Holland with smaller replicas of all important monuments in the Hague and the rest of the country.

During her year-long tenure which ends in March next, Sumit told UNI her job includes keeping a check on budgeting and receiving national and international dignitaries who visit Madurodam, which is in the south of Holland.

Born to Punjabi parents (her father is from Phagwara and mother from Delhi), she loves jazz and athletics and is also active in student politics. She also loves Hindi cinema, and hopes to make it big in Bollywood some day. But she remains very traditional, keeping a fast on Mondays for Shiva and avoiding non-vegetarian food on important religious festivals.

Her father, who went to Holland 25 years ago, runs a company supplying cleaners to multi-nationals and also works as an interpreter with the Dutch police, and so it is hardly surprising that Sumit can speak five languages. And she wants to study economics and politics.

UNI

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