Typical Elite Delhi Kid's view on Bihar

We often hear of many Indias within India. It is mainly used to differentiate between the rich India and the poor India. Sometimes, we also hear of the divide of the Vindhyas - the north and the south. That a chasm exists within North India itself is seldom visible to an outsider. But exist it does. Actually, it exists to a level that its ferocity would take anyone off guard.I

In this blog, the kid wishes to exhibit his sense of humour. And what does he do? He repudiates Bihar as nobody's business. It should come to nobody as a surprise if it is fouund that he has probably never set his foot in Bihar. He must have met a few labourers from Bihar, for Delhi cant move without the contribution of the hard working Bihari. He would probably have met a few Biharis who are toppers at DU / JNU / IIT or wherever this kid has studied from. But then in the society of these elites, Bihar has to perform a function, namely, to satisfy their sense of superiority by perpetually being worse than his society, and believe me, a place can only be worse than hell if it has to be worse than their society.So those toppers or for that matter any other Bihari who exhibits any agreeable trait does not register as a Bihari. Abominably, these chaps do not even hesistate to say on the face of a Bihari that he does not seem to be a Bihari if they wish to honour him. And they mean it as a compliment, not sarcasm!!!What does one say of this culture? What is the future going to hold for a Bihari kid in days to come if such arrogance is tolerated anymore?Indeed there is an all round lowering of standards, specially in Delhi of today. But Biharis have to survive, actually not just survive but flourish and thrive. So whatever be the depth to which the standard sinks, one will have to look after one's own interest in this big bad world.Has the time come for we Biharis to develop our own militant sub nationalism which gives these chaps back as hard as it gets?

Emerrging from the shadow

It has been fashionable to blame Bihar for anything that goes wrong for the last two decades at least. Wherever the fault may be, the blame is always put on Bihar. When I first heard about a decade back that BHEL has been less than honest in its supplies to the Kanti thermal, near Muzaffarpur, I also had felt that some guy at Bihar SEB was trying to externalise the problem. However, when one of the engineers explained to me the details - how components rejected at other projects have been supplied, how there is no seriousness in the project plan, I could sense something amiss.

Now comes the story of the ineptitude of BHEL and NTPC in Bihar. They have not been able to keep any of the commitment they made to Bihar Govt. For a change, one finds Bihar Govt doing a proper appraisal and putting the blame where it is rather than follow the tradition of blaming the hapless BSEB. In fact, the power minister of Bihar was so miffed that he wishes to discuss the option of scrapping the contract with BHEL and NTPC with the central power minister.

Such confidence should do a lot of good to the governance in Bihar.

Smart Brains, Smart Money and Bihar

I was commenting on a blog by Ranjan Rituraj, and couldn't resist pasting my comments here.

As usual very good "local contextual" knowledge and understanding from Ranjan. He makes a good case for why NRB (Non Resident Biharis) need to start coming up with micro investment projects in Bihar and we need not wait for the large corporate houses. They will take time and don't have the agility and speed of individual micro-investments.

My comments there:
And yes very good ideas. NRBs will have to come first and show some initiative. Just sending Money Order is not enough. Coming back with expertise,ideas,investments (micro is better than mega projects),networks etc are very important. Once Bihar reaches the "tipping point" then smart money will follow and that need not be Bihari. Even the big Private Equity, Venture Capital guys will come for sure. Industriats will also come.

Though smart money will take time since this lack of "contextual" and "local knowledge","local networks", "risk appetite" will be a hindrance

However smart brains will not wait that long. The APJ Kalam and likes will see the "historic opportunity" and surely "RUSH" to bihar.

What about you ?
YOU - I mean, you, who is reading this blog and comment.

Are you smart enough ?

If yes then do you have the "local networks","knowledge" etc. then forget the Silicon Valey or Wall Street or India-China opportunity. Here is an opportunity of lifetime.

Go grab it my friend. Need advice or have concerns then talk to Ranjan. He might help. Else drop a word on this blog. Someone here can help. Else drop a visit to Bihar Govt. At site you might find good links. But take some action, don't click out and resume your web-surfing.

ऐसा मौका जिन्दगी में बार बार नहीं आता है मेरे दोस्त ! अगर आप आईटी बूमं मिस कर गए और फिर ब्पो बूम भी और डॉट कॉम और फिर इन्दुस्त्रिअल बूम भी। गूर्गाओं और बैंगलोर और हैदराबाद बूम भी तब ये एक और मौका है

A very humane Chief Minister

Politicians in India have come to acquire a rather nasty image. In such a scenario, images of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar come out strikingly different.

Soon after his coming to power, the Patna West MLA and a close friend of Nitish Kumar, Naveen Kumar Sinha passed away. The pictures taken at the time showed a tearful Nitish as he attended his creamation. Nitish lost his wife a couple of months back due to pneumonia complications. People saw a grieving CM captured weeping inconsolably on TV as he took her for her last rites. Just a couple of days back, there was the sudden death of the Bihar Education Secretary on whom Nitish was relying very heavily to bring in reforms in the education system. Picutres of Nitish were published with visibly moist eyes as he went to pay his last respects.

Conditioned as we are by the culture of the modern Indian metros (and away from the rural culture of India), we may find such public display of emotion rather odd. The western culture even considers tears in the eyes of an adult male as a sign of wekaness. However, expression of such genuine human emotions can only come from a man deeply imbued in humanism. Only a person who is confident will not feel shy to show his emotions even under the glare of media. It feels great that even today, such a humanist is able to hold his own in rough and tumble of Indian politics. This certianly fills me with a lot of hope and optimism.

Gauravshali Bihar e-book version

Bihar is renowned for its great historical legacy and rich cultural heritage. This great land of Ashoka and Buddha has been the motherland of some great legends of human civilization. To recognize these great legends and pay a small tribute to our motherland we came out with a book titled “Gauravshali Bihar” last year .You can read about the launch of this book here.

One Bihar team has decided to make this book free for circulation and now the book is available for free circulation in the e-book version. Please click here to download the free to circulate version. Do pass it to your friends and colleagues who are interested in reading about the legends of this great land which is know as the soul of India.

We will also be publishing the English version of this book shortly and it will be available for sale in the next few months. Thanks for reading and don't forget to give your valuable feedback and suggestion.