[Book Review] Bihar: by Vijay Nambisan

"Unfortunately you have to live in Bihar to love it"

"I will be dead by 40"-- Pushpa, House maid in the home of the author.

"We fell short of crackers for deepavali, so we burst local made bombs"-- Kishan, local friend of the author.

"Don't complain unless the corruption reaches the 60% mark" -- Union Minister to journalists when they complained that some minister is highly corrupt.

BIHAR by Vijay Nambisan gives us real insight into the life of the common biharis and some insight into why it is in such a state as it is today. It goes against the populist intellectual approach of Laalu bashing, and instead indicates that he is a symptom and not the disease afflicting Bihar.

Staying in a highly safe enclave in a highly violent town (named only as M____) where his wife is a surgeon in a missionary hospital. This hospital being donated by the local big shot is the reason why the hospital is safe. Seeing life in Bihar while being safely out of harms way(not very unlike observing poisonous snakes kept in a airtight glass container) is not the best way to comment on Bihar. However it still is a real sample of true life.

Starting off with the sad description of the 'richest' state which is today among the 'poorest', predicting that all of India will be in same situation in near future. Describing the floods during the monsoon and draught in the summer which follows year after year, the well and flourishing feudal system, the boldness of the crime makes us wonder whether people there were left behind the march of evolution.

The state of the road and the railways, the poverty of the people, Lalu's antiques make the situation pathetic. However.....there is still hope.

The author quickly draws us to the few uncommon people who still have hopes and greats dreams of changing Bihar. The story of a typical bramhin teaching and taking pride of his 'lower class' students is truly amazing especially in the caste based hierarchical society of Bihar. The Principals and teachers seem to be the beacon towards the change inspite of carrying the dead weight of the red tape and corruption. They seem to be the one and the only hope of bringing Bihar back from chaos.

There are some unrelated narration on the state of missionaries and the conversions. The state of the hospital run by the missionaries with more ambitions that just serving the people. The discrimination of Malayalee nuns towards non-malayalee nuns. And a short and sweet description of his experiences of Marwadi marriage in Bihar.

Overall the book is worth a read. May be even worth a buy.

--
Rahul Vaidya
New blog added on 5th December in [http://reasonablethoughtsfromme.blogspot.com/]

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same
-- Oscar Wilde