This is a travelogue with a difference. Though my travel is through Delhi but the view in the travelogue is of a village 1000 of miles away in Bihar through the voice of my driver while he takes me meticulously through the airport gurgaon road in Delhi. I am sure the person driving me will never wite this travelogue as he has much hard work pending to keep his house and family running.
I started the journey from T1 after getting down at Delhi after a uneventful spicejet flight from Bangalore. Had the food at "Foodies" right in front of T1 Arrival and then proceeded to the pre-paid taxi counter. There as usual he allocated me to a vehicle, which i did not have a choice waiting for me in Platform 7. I proceeded to board it and found it to be an Old Maruti 800 which i was thinking may be valuable for just its vintage. As soon as i boarded i asked the drivers name as i do usually and asked him where he was from. I heard he is from Bihar and then after the mandatory noting down of registration number by police we proceeded towards Gurgaon, Udyog Vihar. This is a short journey unless i end up in some traffic jam.
Bihar as usual has mixed feeling in my mind. I had never visited it but had read in report after report and through my good bihari friends as a world lost due to want of leadership. Recently i have read bihar in positive light after Nitish Kumar took over. As i am very circumspect of our media especially with the coverage on aam aadmi i really wanted to travel to the drivers village thorough him unadulterated with any bias.
He told me that he stayed in a village 50 kms away from Patna. He mentioned to me that it means 2.5 hrs journey from Patna due to pot-holed roads and rickety vehicle. Now he says the roads are as good as the road i was riding on and it takes just an hour. He was showing me that though his vehicle was of 1999 make it was still good because roads in Delhi are good. So it is not about rickety vehicles but the heavy toll due to maintenance which makes the vehicle bad. I also remember 20 years back there was just one rickety vehicle named "Simha" to my hometown from Palakkad and i also used to take an hour for a 10 Km ride.
Then i asked do they have job at his village. He told that a new power plant is coming up. May be my curiosity with the name made me ask what the name of the power plant and who are the owners. This questions were triggered by his mentioning that many people working there are from south. So i asked if it was GVK or GMR but he told me that they are in airport and that it was some company from Delhi. I asked if it was J P Power. Seeing in my curiosity he told he will find out by calling his cousin who work there. He took his mobile and tried calling him. May be cousin is busy he did not pick up and he was really sad at not being able to find the name. I told i will search it in net. I have googled it and may be it is being built "Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station" by NTPC.
He was telling me he can see it from his house and may be he can get job there as new industry come in that area after the company is completed. He was telling me philosophically that it is too early before the company completes in another year and to predict what will happen after that. He was telling me that price of land there has gone up due to speculation and many people from outside has bought land in the area.
He was telling that he has a farm there and water is not a problem. If he digs 12ft he gets water. Issue was law and order which is now very good as all the top culprits are behind bar and the chottu are on the run or have found some jobs which are legal as peet and family pressure has made these people to change.
So what about laloo and Nitish. Who will win next time? Laloo he says is history and Nitish if he continues good work will get elected next time. So legacy will not win him and he need to continuously perform for staying in power. A word of advice from a voter. As i heard today in a TV program, May be Indian voters are smartest lot in the world democracies. He was happy for Akilesh winning the UP election and he hopes now the roads which are bad in UP will also get good and he can ride to Bihar without any potholes.
Sadly my journey ended and hence this travelogue. Hope to write a travelogue through my own eyes on Patna in near future.
Final
I started the journey from T1 after getting down at Delhi after a uneventful spicejet flight from Bangalore. Had the food at "Foodies" right in front of T1 Arrival and then proceeded to the pre-paid taxi counter. There as usual he allocated me to a vehicle, which i did not have a choice waiting for me in Platform 7. I proceeded to board it and found it to be an Old Maruti 800 which i was thinking may be valuable for just its vintage. As soon as i boarded i asked the drivers name as i do usually and asked him where he was from. I heard he is from Bihar and then after the mandatory noting down of registration number by police we proceeded towards Gurgaon, Udyog Vihar. This is a short journey unless i end up in some traffic jam.
Bihar as usual has mixed feeling in my mind. I had never visited it but had read in report after report and through my good bihari friends as a world lost due to want of leadership. Recently i have read bihar in positive light after Nitish Kumar took over. As i am very circumspect of our media especially with the coverage on aam aadmi i really wanted to travel to the drivers village thorough him unadulterated with any bias.
He told me that he stayed in a village 50 kms away from Patna. He mentioned to me that it means 2.5 hrs journey from Patna due to pot-holed roads and rickety vehicle. Now he says the roads are as good as the road i was riding on and it takes just an hour. He was showing me that though his vehicle was of 1999 make it was still good because roads in Delhi are good. So it is not about rickety vehicles but the heavy toll due to maintenance which makes the vehicle bad. I also remember 20 years back there was just one rickety vehicle named "Simha" to my hometown from Palakkad and i also used to take an hour for a 10 Km ride.
Then i asked do they have job at his village. He told that a new power plant is coming up. May be my curiosity with the name made me ask what the name of the power plant and who are the owners. This questions were triggered by his mentioning that many people working there are from south. So i asked if it was GVK or GMR but he told me that they are in airport and that it was some company from Delhi. I asked if it was J P Power. Seeing in my curiosity he told he will find out by calling his cousin who work there. He took his mobile and tried calling him. May be cousin is busy he did not pick up and he was really sad at not being able to find the name. I told i will search it in net. I have googled it and may be it is being built "Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station" by NTPC.
He was telling me he can see it from his house and may be he can get job there as new industry come in that area after the company is completed. He was telling me philosophically that it is too early before the company completes in another year and to predict what will happen after that. He was telling me that price of land there has gone up due to speculation and many people from outside has bought land in the area.
He was telling that he has a farm there and water is not a problem. If he digs 12ft he gets water. Issue was law and order which is now very good as all the top culprits are behind bar and the chottu are on the run or have found some jobs which are legal as peet and family pressure has made these people to change.
So what about laloo and Nitish. Who will win next time? Laloo he says is history and Nitish if he continues good work will get elected next time. So legacy will not win him and he need to continuously perform for staying in power. A word of advice from a voter. As i heard today in a TV program, May be Indian voters are smartest lot in the world democracies. He was happy for Akilesh winning the UP election and he hopes now the roads which are bad in UP will also get good and he can ride to Bihar without any potholes.
Sadly my journey ended and hence this travelogue. Hope to write a travelogue through my own eyes on Patna in near future.
Final
