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Landing in Patna on a lovely morning, the weather a perfect 17°C, we were looking forward to experiencing Nitish Kumar’s Bihar in full action. For a suburban girl from Mumbai, chaos is not an out of order phenomenon, but the streets and bylanes of Patna are crazy. The morning began by sitting in a rickshaw wider and taller than those in Mumbai but driven with a higher level of recklessness. Three times the driver banged into someone or something and life continued on as normal. I however, found myself inching inwards several times only to save my derrière from being dragged along by the bus that drove too close for my comfort. What is funny here is the rickshaw sharing concept wherein they pause when they see a bystander, even though they are overflowing with people and then take you in without even asking you where you want to go. We did hop into one only to change our plan because the driver wasn’t going where we wanted to and then, he dropped us off at the market place so that we could find ourselves another rickshaw to continue onwards. We decided to walk and were guided on to the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, one of the few things to see in Patna, which was supposedly a 10 minute walk. 30 minutes later, and soaked in a bizarre February rain shower, we found ourselves at a 2 storey building which was very well maintained and definitely stood out amongst Patna’s other structures. To fulfil the long cherished desire of his father, Khuda Bakhsh opened it for the people of Patna, with 4,000 rare manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, apart from the printed books and today it houses, close to 21,000 oriental manuscripts and 2.5 lakh printed books. Unfortunately, we only managed to catch some glimpses of the collections. With Bodhgaya and Nalanda being too far away to embark upon in the afternoon, we returned to Hotel Patliputra Ashok, which I must add, we were lucky to get since most of Patna’s hotels were sold out but not that lucky either because if you shut the bathroom door completely, you will get locked in. The rickety ride back to the hotel was not pleasant either and I felt myself choking on the smoke which was settling down in my lungs along with the cold heavy Patna air. Sitting in the room, blaring horns still resonating all around me, I’m reflecting back on the lovely chaat which adorned the otherwise murky streets of Patna. Hot samosa chaats and the traditional Litti, which I will muster up the courage to try during the course of my next 3 days in Bihar 🙂
Foot Loose in India 
Reading this makes me wonder if progressive Patna is this today, what was it like a couple of years back !! Waiting to read more of your experience !
yes , Bina you are right ! me too waiting to hear about tell tale signs of nitish’s patna
Though i have never been to Patna, now i know what to expect !!
dhimant
I am from Patna and I do know what people expect from Nitish’s Patna. But I must share my views with all those who have never visited Patna before. Although Patna has not changed visibly much, the real change have been in the governance and in the sense of security as it has become much more easier to venture out without fear.
Expecting the change in the day to day lifestyle is not justified as it is the real gut of any city or region. Patna will always remain Patna at heart and I am sure this is true with Mumbai or Delhi or any ohther city for that matter.
Dear Pushpesh, thanks for your comment. Since you are from Patna, I’m sure you can resonate much better with the gut of the city. You are right when you say that visible changes are too much to expect and one has to feel the optimism and hope for a better tomorrow through changes in governance initially. But with that, comes a change in expectations, attitudes and deliverables of people. Having said that I’m not sure whether you mean that ‘Patna will remain at heart’ is a good thing or bad…because I believe that with progress, outcomes definately change and these are executed through the people of the city…may be slow but will happen. I look forward to visiting Patna a few years from now and seeing what I feel again! 🙂
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