I had posted a status on Facebook, how Bihar and the law and order ruined our childhood. I got many messages from my friends & they were so excited to know how BIHAR of 90’s was? If it was really as bad as how it has been shown in the Hindi movies like Gangaajal, Apharan and Satya.
Actually the answer is No! What you see in movies is just one aspect of the BIHAR of 90’s. The aspect which they show in the movies is based on Crime. True, crime and Bihar were synonyms of each other but Bihar was beyond this.
Today I will describe you Bihar from the perspective of a teen who like all other teens of his age group wanted to explore the world, roam freely, enjoy the birthday parties of classmates, watch movies at night with family and friends, go to malls and long drives with friends on weekends.
It’s not like all the childhood memories are bad, I had some super amazing time with my family. Like all other parents, mine too gave all the happiness and comfort a child can even imagine.
If you are a 90’s kid from Bihar, you must have had beautiful memories during Durga Puja, Chatt Puja and Diwali. Images of crowded streets, hopping from one street to other and huge pandals celebrating the festival like maha ashtami and navmi are still fresh in my mind.
We used to get such rare opportunities to go out on street in night during the entire year that on the 10th day of Dussehra when Durga Maa would go for Visarjan, we also used to get super sad and would eagerly await for next year’s Durga Puja.
Chatt Puja was the only time we actually found the city clean. For us experiencing clean streets was something which was not supposed to happen every day. I was so surprised to find the Municipality cleaning the streets everyday in Delhi.
Bihar must be the only state with a population of 10 crores and having only one airport. Unlike today, we used to have only couple of flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata everyday. Patna is a capital city but if you see the airport, you might find Surat Bus stand better and well managed than our airport. After decades of struggle finally the Airport is changing & evolving. I hope the new airport will be something which matches the standards of the airports of other capital cities in India.
The 90’s of Bihar was so depressing that our lives used to start at 7am and would end with the sun set. Going out after sunset could lead to your kidnapping or murder if your family income was more than 5000/- a month.
Let me tell you an instance. Once my brother hadn’t come back home till 8pm. My mother went to terrace, stood in the corner and waited there till the time she could see him coming back on his cycle. She was so terrified and shocked that all the bad things crossed her mind, from kidnapping to getting a Ransom call, we had prepared ourselves for all the possibilities. That was the Bihar I lived in. The Bihar you can’t even imagine!
Ransom, Murder and Kidnapping was such a common thing for us that reading a positive news in the Newspaper was once in a fortnight thing. A 90’s parent knew that buying a Scooty could also lead to his kidnapping.
On the name of entertainment we had 4 movie halls in Patna: Ashoka, Regent , Mona and Apsara where one could watch 12-3 & 3-6 pm shows because you couldn’t have dared to think of watching a movie show beyond that. Reason being the same, who would want to experience the realtime crime scene one watches in movies!
When the entire country was celebrating the opening of malls and multiplexes in their cities, we were still struggling to get the permission from our parents to step out from our houses without any reason. Till the age of 18, Maurya Lok was the only place I could imagine going to and have fun with friends. Trust me, for 18 long years of my life I hadn’t seen any new place coming up where we could go and spend quality time.
It’s not like the city was dull, it was full of life. In fact Patna was the hub of schools, colleges, & coaching centres. The only few good memories that I have apart from the time spent with my family was with my friends in school and Intermediate College (12th). Education in Bihar was and is something that must be applauded. Teachers have been extremely hard working.
We the students of Bihar are considered to be the most hard working bunch of students in the world. The fear of living in Bihar after class 12th was no less than a nightmare. It used to be the driving force behind all the hard work we did.
I sincerely thank all my teachers because of whom I am here today.
There was no concept of weekend and long weekends in the Bihar of 90’s. We did not know that kids of my age used to go for night stay with friends during weekends because for us weekends were meant to study more and more and more..
Can you believe that Bihar does not have a 5 start hotel even till date? Rest you can imagine!
Forget about hotels, we didn’t have a single branded Multispeciality Hospital during the dark era of 90’s .
It is not that we love to come to Delhi for any kind treatment but were forced to since we did not have any provision to get ourselves treated in that state. Health Care was depressing and we totally used to rely on the private doctors for any treatments.
Today’s Bihar is very different, it’s growing! We have IIT, AIIMS, Law College, NIFT etc in Patna. We are running fast to match up with the speed of other cities but still we have a long way to go.
When whole India was living in 90’s, we were living in 70’s. There is not even a single day I remember when I had seen electricity for 24 hours. This is the story of Patna, imagine the condition of other cities of Bihar.
I thank my parents, my brother, my friends and relatives for making my childhood amazing but I will always regret and curse the Bihar of 90’s.
I hope those dark days never come back. I still love the City and the state. Whatever I am today, I owe it to Bihar and it’s people.
I am in Delhi for the past 15 years but I still miss each and everyday spent in Patna.
Sumit
Comments