Sense ans Sensibilities

Love for motherland translates into love for Patna for me many times.....Biharipan aka apnapan to me. Do not know why , but have always felt an instant connect with the people from my homeland. Is it the same for others too.. have always wondered.

 As late social scientist, Arvind Das, had said ,Bihar is not a state but a state of mind. To me everyone irrespective of caste or creed who has  lived in Bihar  is a Bihari..be it Bengali or Marwari settled  in  Bihar. Biharipan....what a word!!. What does it mean??  To me it encompasses all things that Bihar and its mindset symbolizes. Biharipan means that attitude of belongingness for your neighbour that the line gets blurred and one starts  poking  in others' affairs. Infact many a times all our bestest friends are people having origins in Bihar. That awaragardi of the roadside romeos which almost threatened the girls of the house to remain indoors. That attitude of streetsmarts to con gullible junta and then bask and show off among friends and peers.This is all so Bihari way.

Have not seen such behavioural concepts in the metro.The so called friends talk over the phones/intercom for hours together but rarely visit each other.Chatting in the parks, elevators and corridors is commonplace ..so much so that people talk to neighbours standing on individual gates instead of  stepping in or inviting the neighbour to walk into their drawing rooms. In hours of need and crisis most of these friends disappear in thin air.They feign ignorance  in most cases. Is this politeness or indifference?? And then we had complained about nosey neighbours back home...atleast they were their for us in all situations. Awara boys of Patna were not so bold enough as to rape and molest neighbors  at the drop of a hat. This is so common in all metros. And moreover the same yeteryears romeos act as family members if bumped into later in life:).

This is the Bihari way of life to me ...the people who have reslience, patience and courage to survive in toughest of odds and ordeals of day to day life.Maybe this also explains their success away from home in all realms of  life and professions. I am in love with this Bihar and even if I do not have a single relative/ friend to visit in Patna, yet the town shall hold the same fondness for me. People from Bihar instantly become apna for me. This is Biharipan aka apnapan to me.