How should a Bihari feel at getting a remark as, “Hey you don’t look or sound like a Bihari”. Should he feel elated, as this comment can imply that he is ‘positively’ different from the rest of his Bihari counterparts? Or he should be taken aback by the thought of being belonging to a place which is looked down upon by most of the outer masses?
While I was travelling down to my province from an another state, I heard a conversation wherein a person in banking sector was crying about his so called ‘misfortune’ at being posted recently to HDFC, Patna. “Poor luck!”, said his partner at this.
Let me light upon the fact that world bank has ranked Patna- the capital, as second, only after Delhi, among the best centres to setup a business. In January 2010, the Indian government’s central statistics organization reported that during those financial five years, Bihar’s GDP grew by 11.03%, which made it the second largest growing economy after Gujrat.
In the past few years there has been a steady and a quiet transformation of this region. Ranging from the widening of roads, to better streamlining of traffic, to the emergence of largest growing mobile phone market in India here, to the rapid industrial development, Bihar has collected various such medals which it can easily brag about.
Corruption rate has also declined through past years considerably. With the Nitish Kumar government the land here has witnessed many law and order reforms and has become a much less violence- prone area.Not only this, various big shopping complexes have sprouted speedily in the last few years.
When I returned to my homeland recently after a long time, I was amazed to see the lights and flyovers all around. The development of this place through these years has been quite evident.
But a sad story is, not all are aware of these recent changes of Bihar. The media has always highlighted the dark sides of the place. This has always abetted the outsiders to think ill of it.
Bihar and the Biharis have always been abhorred due to their language, accent and personality. For others, generally, ‘Bihari’ means rickshaw-pullers and the labour class. I have even heard people abusing each other by just saying a non-Bihari, a ‘Bihari’. What the general outer mass fails to realize is that Biharis are one of the most successful professionals and technicians after all. They should not be judged merely by their outer look. And not all of them have a poor appearance.
It’s not that I am writing this as I ought to act as a responsible and a patriotic Bihari, for Bihar is my motherland. I am in fact writing this as these are the crude facts which are rarely discussed.
If someone visits Bihar, he would definitely be delighted to get a warm welcome here. And as far as safety is concerned, Bihar is safe. To be candid, I wouldn’t conceal the fact that few of the remote places here may get disturbed due to some maoist activities, but they are limited to those regions for a very negligible period and shouldn’t tarnish the image of Bihar as a whole.
The lifestyle here is changing. This is again evident by the number of people that voted in the last assembly elections. The proportion of ladies voting has also increased grately. And touchwood, the whole voting process was free of any mishap. If we contrast it to the 2G and the CWG scams, we find that such corruption is not visible here. These facts clearly state that Bihar is changing. It is no more the Bihar of dark times.
As my mind is rolling through these wonderful facts, it is getting harder for me to stop praising my place. But I would end up with a note to my dear readers who might have had a negative perception about this place that it’s time now to change our outlook towards it. No one is to blame in particular for having such a preconceived notion about the place as children have been brought up with such prejudices for Bihar. I don’t say you believe me blindly. But I would surely suggest the non-Biharis to visit the capital city once at the least. And as far as the Bihari accent is concerned, it is true that it is different. But just as the Biharis respect the other cultures, others must also respect this difference with same acceptance.
And next time when someone says me, “Hey! You don’t seem like a Bihari”, I would be more than happy to reply, “Sir, you need to update yourself now. Bihar is no more the land of unsmart figures. It has changed and now possesses many others like me. And I am just an example!”
