"Are bhai rukiye na,kaahe albalaye hue hain. ek ek k karke na milega tikatwa sabko" I could hear the ticket collector for the bus plying from Jamshedpur to Ranchi vent out his frustration as various 100 rupee notes tried to poke into his nose. I could not help but smile at the words ,the dialect ,the place. I knew I was back to the land I had started from. And for some reason it gave me an innate sense of relief. So I went ahead and shamelessly joined the crowd in poking a 100 rupee note into the ticket collector's nose."Ek ticket idhar dena bhaiya; Aage ka seat dena". For the moment I had forgotten the more civilised method of getting things done by queing up or the luxuries of online reservation system I was so used to.I knew my land and how to get things done here. This 'poking the 'thing' into the nose' tactic was ingeniuosly brought to use by us in college days when we had to get our "NO DUES" done before every semester. When there are hundreds of hands in competition ,you are in with your best chances when you poke it straight into the nose of the collector.Somehow my trick didnot seem to be working here and I could only manage the ticket to the last seat. Feeling utterly guilty and ashamed of my failure to get myself an AAGE WAALA SEAT I made way through the congested pathway of the bus to the much dreaded sweat invoking last seat of the bus. With tobacco chewing people seated on both sides I knew my journey was going to be exciting!!!
The bus moved on and so did my train of thoughts. I was still not able to get over my disastrous performance at the ticket collector's. I tried to console myself that it was Darwin's theory of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST at work but the fact that I was not the fittest was difficult to gulp down. And as the bus tried to inch out of the ever slow traffic of Jamshdpur my frustration knew no limits. It was only after about half n hour when the bus moved out of the crowded city into the highway and I could breathe in some fresh air that I began to calm down and then the rational me took charge. I tried to reason out my frustration on a petty issue like this. Very soon the reality struck me hard.I realised that I have been groomed this way to fight my way to the top. So the frustration was inevitable.Interestingly majority of the people in my state have been groomed the same way. And that is the reason you seldom see a queue lined up.Even if there is one ,there are some smart souls who will never find time for these mundane queuing up activity. Getting the things done in the minimum time is a matter of pride for people out here. And here is a state where you will find more BAAHUBALIS than civilians. I had one such encounter when our bus was stopped by his acolytes for about 10 mins because some netaji was about to do I dont know what. There was immense confusion over the issue but what infuriated my senses was the manner in which the gunmen kept the bus with 60 people stranded and the way these bastards lionized the local netaji. When our intrigued conductor seeked permission to move on he got the reply "Are kaahe bahas karte ho re,bole na bhaiya ji aa rahe hain". Welcome to Jharkhand.
I thought hard. Over the pysche of the people of my state. I wanted to get to the evolution of such a clan of domineering inhabitants of which I was very much a part.What I could derive was that the people here are groomed this way-to bully their way upto the top grabbing the thing before anyone else does. And what we see and observe is the outcome of this very mindset.And that is the exact reason why we Biharis have earned the ill fame of involving in many of the unruly acts all over the country. One would argue that this happens to be the story of the entire nation and I would not like to refute this line of argument but what troubles me immensely that this "Haq maanga nahi cheena jaata hai" sydrome has affected Jharkhand(or erstwhile Bihar) the most.When I delved deep into my reasoning I find an answer to that. The answer is scarcity. Yes there has always been scarcity of resources.There has been scarcity of water so you find people fighting over community hand pumps. There has been scarcity of berths in trains so you find people fighting over tickets. There has been scarcity of education so you find students competing hard for a few berths in a very few good institutes.The survival of the fittest has to take place where there is scarcity of resources. Yes this is precise reason of the behaviour of my statemates. Then who is to be blamed. Once again I cant resist pointing fingers to the governments which have been in power whose ministers have amassed immense personal wealth but didnot have an iota of time to attend to the needs of the common man. Its the politicians who have turned my state into a vicious food chain where one has to feed over the others to survive.
I got down at Ranchi and had a swarm of auto rickshaw drivers vying for my attention at the bus stand. There was mayhem at the autorickshaw stand as they saw the customer in me coming. There were skirmishes and the milieu wore a modicum of sobriety only when I decided to seat myself into one. On my way I could hear the autorickshaw driver abuse the poor rickshaw wallahs who by mistake have strayed on their way.These incidents did nothing but reaffirmed my reasoning I had carried out on the bus.I reached home. My father almost simultaneously entered the gate. I saw a ticket in his hand and a smile on his face. I knew what was it for. My father never queues up.:)
The bus moved on and so did my train of thoughts. I was still not able to get over my disastrous performance at the ticket collector's. I tried to console myself that it was Darwin's theory of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST at work but the fact that I was not the fittest was difficult to gulp down. And as the bus tried to inch out of the ever slow traffic of Jamshdpur my frustration knew no limits. It was only after about half n hour when the bus moved out of the crowded city into the highway and I could breathe in some fresh air that I began to calm down and then the rational me took charge. I tried to reason out my frustration on a petty issue like this. Very soon the reality struck me hard.I realised that I have been groomed this way to fight my way to the top. So the frustration was inevitable.Interestingly majority of the people in my state have been groomed the same way. And that is the reason you seldom see a queue lined up.Even if there is one ,there are some smart souls who will never find time for these mundane queuing up activity. Getting the things done in the minimum time is a matter of pride for people out here. And here is a state where you will find more BAAHUBALIS than civilians. I had one such encounter when our bus was stopped by his acolytes for about 10 mins because some netaji was about to do I dont know what. There was immense confusion over the issue but what infuriated my senses was the manner in which the gunmen kept the bus with 60 people stranded and the way these bastards lionized the local netaji. When our intrigued conductor seeked permission to move on he got the reply "Are kaahe bahas karte ho re,bole na bhaiya ji aa rahe hain". Welcome to Jharkhand.
I thought hard. Over the pysche of the people of my state. I wanted to get to the evolution of such a clan of domineering inhabitants of which I was very much a part.What I could derive was that the people here are groomed this way-to bully their way upto the top grabbing the thing before anyone else does. And what we see and observe is the outcome of this very mindset.And that is the exact reason why we Biharis have earned the ill fame of involving in many of the unruly acts all over the country. One would argue that this happens to be the story of the entire nation and I would not like to refute this line of argument but what troubles me immensely that this "Haq maanga nahi cheena jaata hai" sydrome has affected Jharkhand(or erstwhile Bihar) the most.When I delved deep into my reasoning I find an answer to that. The answer is scarcity. Yes there has always been scarcity of resources.There has been scarcity of water so you find people fighting over community hand pumps. There has been scarcity of berths in trains so you find people fighting over tickets. There has been scarcity of education so you find students competing hard for a few berths in a very few good institutes.The survival of the fittest has to take place where there is scarcity of resources. Yes this is precise reason of the behaviour of my statemates. Then who is to be blamed. Once again I cant resist pointing fingers to the governments which have been in power whose ministers have amassed immense personal wealth but didnot have an iota of time to attend to the needs of the common man. Its the politicians who have turned my state into a vicious food chain where one has to feed over the others to survive.
I got down at Ranchi and had a swarm of auto rickshaw drivers vying for my attention at the bus stand. There was mayhem at the autorickshaw stand as they saw the customer in me coming. There were skirmishes and the milieu wore a modicum of sobriety only when I decided to seat myself into one. On my way I could hear the autorickshaw driver abuse the poor rickshaw wallahs who by mistake have strayed on their way.These incidents did nothing but reaffirmed my reasoning I had carried out on the bus.I reached home. My father almost simultaneously entered the gate. I saw a ticket in his hand and a smile on his face. I knew what was it for. My father never queues up.:)
Comments
nice blog aashu...u spoke wat millions of like minded people think daily. Alas ! cannot do anything to rectify . Do i see a man coming out in the open and lead the ever ending fight against justice, poverty and illiteracy. i realize i have found one....nd thats you...i see that fire in you..atleast u have started penning things down...hope to see some actions soon... :)
my favorite lines of the post are:
And as the bus tried to inch out of the ever slow traffic of Jamshedpur my frustration knew no limits. It was only after about half n hour when the bus moved out of the crowded city into the highway and I could breathe in some fresh air :-)
And if you look at the origin of the various naxal grps u can somehow link the baahubalis with scarcity...once again the mentality remains the same-grab the things before any one else does.....n i m talking about the hardcore ones but the ones who have turned criminals due to circumstances.
All said n done,I appreciate your taking out time for reading and putting a comment on the post.
ek huha post dale hain aap...
aapme bhee samaj sudharak ke lakshan nazar aa rahe hain mujhe :P
For me its the ubiquitous red coloured paan spit i must say biharis have been spitting tht shit on each and every progress tht have been made recently...u go anywhere in patna be it lifts,staircases,platforms,rd all public places seems to be painted with tht red coloured spit as if the whole city is a spitoon. i think thts the epicentre for dirtiness in bihar...whts your take on this??
Truely yours!!!
I agree to the fact that the standard of education and the civic sense of a majority of our population is not upto the mark,genuinely because of illiteracy.But this is not the scene with the upcoming generation out here.As far as education is concerned,I personally feel that the education standard is developing "Slowely but Surely"
Go to any state or India's any of the top Universities,u will find our students performing excellently.And this is a fact which cannot be denied by anybody and neither is anybody ignorant if it.
But yes,I firmly believe that the soul reason for this development to take place at such a snail's pace is "Scarcity of Resources" in our state.This is the only reason why our stars r brilliantly shinning in the sky of other states..which is really very disappointing on our part but resigned to our condition-We r helpless..Had there been sufficient resources in our state for these geniuses to nurture and resources where they cud utilize their creative power in development to upgrade their own state...then,the scenario wud have been totally difeerent from wat it is now!!
This issue must be cropping up in the minds of many of our statemates.You have given ur bit but to eradicate it completely,I think all of us will have to give our bit becoz its OUR STATE..and its not jst our duty but our resposibility to take utmost care of it..
But down the heart..the fact alwaz remains-"PROUD TO BE A JHARKHANDI"
"JOHAAR JHARKHAND"
you poionted well one place that the situation is moreover same everywhere in our country..But we Bihari got a bad name ..So changing the reality that's the challenge we have..
But can't integrity and poverty survive together for a while to let integrity win and to welcome wealth and abundance with open arms in our state..