As a young boy growing up in Bihar one of the less lurid and suggestive local songs I heard went something like this.... "धीरे धीरे लागे कलाई थामने; उनको ऊँगली थामना ग़ज़ब हो गया" This was sung by a woman, narrating the fact that "misfortune" stuck her the day she gave an inch to a wily man! This song could not have been a more realistic representation to what happened in Bihar in the last 60 years since independence, especially since the mid-1970s - a period which also marked the height of political movement in बीihar under the leadership of the formidable JaiPrakash Narain. Those were heady days when most Biharis thought that the Sun would rise in Bihar. Little did they realise that that was the beginning of a long sunset for Bihar. Each successive government since then has taken advantage of the ungli [finger] and gone for the kalai [wrist] and much more... and Bihar all the while has acted as the helpless girl who can't say no, taken over by the persuation.... The result was for all of us to see.
It might sound unbelievable to many that till the early 1980s when my cousins used to literally fail exams due to what was known in Calcutta as Load Shedding, we in a small town in Bihar did not know what power cuts were. Of course, by the 1990s, we did not know and did not need to know that there was a something called the Bihar State Electricity Board we were connected on private gensets.
But for the past two years, we have been hearing informally that things are changing and last week there was some proof in the sense that a leading English daily carried the story of turnaround in Bihar as headlines. It was after many years, most certainly since I started reading English newpapers daily, that Bihar made the headlines for all the right reasons.
Of course, there is still a long way to go to reach just where we were in 1980s. But it still feels good to know that there is a group of people who are taking us back to where we began.
We biharis are practical people, please do not show us dreams of an utopia, light at the end of the tunnel, bright future etc etc. Just please take us back to what we left behind, give us back what we had, we will be happy with it. In fact we never wanted more than that...
It might sound unbelievable to many that till the early 1980s when my cousins used to literally fail exams due to what was known in Calcutta as Load Shedding, we in a small town in Bihar did not know what power cuts were. Of course, by the 1990s, we did not know and did not need to know that there was a something called the Bihar State Electricity Board we were connected on private gensets.
But for the past two years, we have been hearing informally that things are changing and last week there was some proof in the sense that a leading English daily carried the story of turnaround in Bihar as headlines. It was after many years, most certainly since I started reading English newpapers daily, that Bihar made the headlines for all the right reasons.
Of course, there is still a long way to go to reach just where we were in 1980s. But it still feels good to know that there is a group of people who are taking us back to where we began.
We biharis are practical people, please do not show us dreams of an utopia, light at the end of the tunnel, bright future etc etc. Just please take us back to what we left behind, give us back what we had, we will be happy with it. In fact we never wanted more than that...
