Mayank's Blog

(This article borrows heavily from Harry Potter series of novels) In a dark room of his Bombay (oops! Sorry, Mumbai) castle, Mr. Raj Thackeray was awakened from his sleep by the hooting of an owl. This owl was from his secretary who had sent him his schedule for today. He removed the scroll from the owl’s leg and looked at its contents. 10 AM – 12 PM – Give inflammatory speeches about how migrants are destroying Maharashtra to the poor and the uneducated. 12 PM – 1.30 PM – Lunch followed by attacks on hapless auto/taxi drivers. 1.30 PM – 3 PM – Encourage his dementors to attack media houses and claim it as spontaneous. 3 PM – 5 PM – Intimidate the reporter who dared question his methods in the course of an interview. 5 PM – 7 PM – Meet and threaten the director of the film who used the word Bombay in his movie.

After nearly an year, this December I had a chance to visit Bihar. My visits normally consist of resting in my home in Patna and occasional visits to my uncle's place. But this time it was different. I had to go to Gaya to attend my cousin sister's marriage ceremony. Stepping out of Patna made me question - Am I really proud to be a Bihari? Patna is like any other city in India, struggling with pollution, traffic jams, crime, etc. Being snuggled in my bed in Patna had made me forget the reality of what Bihar really is; after all its been nearly 10 years since I had traveled to any town outside of Patna in Bihar. So, the illusion was broken the moment my uncle's brand new Maruti A-Star moved out of outskirts of Patna, to what is supposedly the "National Highway". If you haven't guessed it already, its an apology of a road.