food for thought

Ours is a poor country, this is a fact and those who do not accept it and are spellbound by the glittering success parts of our economy has achieved in last two decades are just myopic. But in many parts of this country, or at least in most of the visible parts of this country, this poverty is scattered. You have slums, plenty of them, but between those, you will always find skyscrapers. These two are so mixed now that it has become sort of Indian identity. And this is where Bihar is different from the rest of the country. It has mass poverty, wealth is very hard to find, it is either with old landlords, or with corrupt politicians and their beneficiaries, who seldom flaunt it. So wherever you will stand, you will find ugly poverty, like a black reptile, encircling everything.
Standing on the railway platform of Darbhanga, I was aghast to see the story, faces of hundreds of people were describing. Those open mouths, with flies all around, and over to that, the deep slumber, it has became the way of life for them. A whole generation has undergone in this kind of lifestyle, where there is no style, but a belief that things now cannot be better. The place was so different that it takes an effort to not let depression set inside. The whole environment was gloomy, where you have to scour amongst scores of people to find a happy face. In a country of festivals, all the colors of their lives have merged together to become black, and it must have been ages when their ears have enjoyed a piece of music, because those ears have become deaf now, shocked from the deafening voice poverty is generating, day in and day out, like a scene from the bomb-blast.
There are two parts of the country, one which is competing with the best of the world, and getting all the attention; other which is also competing, albeit with Africa, to go so downhill from where it will be impossible to drag it up. I am both fortunate and unfortunate to witness both parts so closely.