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I wanted to write about my experience soon after the Patna trip simply because I din’t want to lose the ‘high’ I felt post day one. However, to ensure that the feelings were not transitionary, I waited a few days. While my first impression was clouded by the city’s dust and loud buzz, it definitely was not the lasting one. My work gave me the opportunity to tour within and outside of Patna and also to connect with people across many spheres of daily life. Apart from the meetings, interactions included those with hotel staff, rickshaw and taxi drivers, restaurant owners, street food vendors, tourist offices, local women and shop owners. I was always left pleasantly surprised with their willingness to help and be friendly, which goes to show how prejudiced I may have been about ‘biharis’, an impression based largely on their reckless driving skills. When I mentioned this to our rickshaw driver (who become our private guide for a small hike in fare, displayed a sense of loyalty by vociferously shooing away anyone who dared jump onto the ‘reserved’ vehicle,  took great pride in showing us around his city and did not dictate the final price but only happily took whatever we offered – Pavan Kumar and do give him a call if you land up in Patna (0)99052 01327), he went on to say something so simple yet profound – “Bihar mein aisa kuch nahi hai, sab jagah log ache hota hai aur bure bhi hote hai, aur bihar ke log waise hi hai” which means “People are people everywhere, good and bad exists even in Bihar but it isn’t anything out of the ordinary”. He mentioned that earlier there used to be a lot of ‘goonda gardi’, but now Nitish Kumar’s government had a strong hold on law and order. In a city which would calm down by 7 p.m., we now found ourselves, two girls, roaming freely late into the evening. So obvious was his statement that I felt ashamed of expecting otherwise. And so relieved did I feel with this realization of human behavior that I even let my guard down with Bihari bacteria. Omlette pav, paapdi chaat, aaloo tikki, moodi, litti, narayal paani, aam paapad and a king size bite of moti choor laddoo later, I was hugely satisfied.

Another thing I noticed is that common spellings vary drastically across India and it’s so interesting how you can hear local accents through the way things are spelt. ‘Fhemily resturant’, ‘paw bhaji’ or ‘whishkey’, totally cracked me up and I cannot explain how funny it was when during one of our meetings, me and Vijaybhai played ping pong with Vijay and Bhijay until he flashed me a wide grin and signaled ‘V for Victory’ in my face.

Through the course of the next few days, we saw and sensed the efforts that must have gone into developing Bihar. The organizations we met expressed hope with the current government, who also regularly organizes ‘jan sabhas’, a platform for the common people to meet with the chief minister. One of the organizations, fighting for a tough policy change has managed to make headway with the government and their fight has seen more light than in previous days.

Going forward, I will judge situations not as a result of inherent human flaws but only as outcomes of their surrounding environment and also pay more attention to developments taking place in Bihar as these will make for good learning lessons. My journey came a full circle, when I asked the rickshaw driver who was dropping me home to wait outside the polling booth, while I cast my vote for Mumbai’s municipal elections. I left my suitcase for a good ten minutes, entrusting the driver and whilst dropping me home, much to my delight, he told me that he was from Patna too. Thinking back on my trip, I could imagine the family and home that he must have given up to drive us around, the buzzing mosquitoes as we call them, in a city run by those who divide and rule on state lines and elected into power only because the majority cannot be bothered to vote.