Perception matters

It depends a lot on how you see things, like even before going to a Khajuraho or Goa, you decide in your heart & mind that it is going to be splendid, just by looking at the photographs and what you have read. This is nothing else but perception, and perception matters a lot.

I took a Summer Special train from Patna Junction to land in Delhi way back in the later half of June in 1998; its been 13-long years, can’t believe; though a roller coaster, but have enjoyed it. I came here to take admission in Kirori Mal College, Delhi University.

From getting down to the Summer Special train till date, the perception about my origin has changed a lot – meaning of being a Bihari in the capital – though I remain the same. I am still the same 5 feet and 6 inches something, wheatish complexion and a bit introvert; but the way strangers meet and reacted has changed a lot.

I still remember the day I landed in Delhi I visited a property dealer and asked him to get me a one-bedroom flat in Hudson Lines or Outram Lines (both are quite close to the DU’s North Campus). The property dealer asked me my budget, area of the flat and finally the main question – Where do you belong to? My reply to it was simple, I am from Bihar. I saw the expressions of his face changing, not that he was averse to Biharis, it was an expression of helplessness. I still remember, Yogesh, the property dealer, said, why don’t you go for Nehru Vihar or Gandhi Vihar, they are quite cheaper and easier to get. I replied, why, what is the problem in Hudson Lines or an Outram Lines, to which he answered most of the landlords won’t give it to a Bihari – here came the first feel of being a Bihari outside Bihar.

Finally, he landed me a flat in Parmanand Colony. That was the first incident that made me realise the feeling time and again that I am from Bihar. Before landing in Delhi and even today, I am not a regionalist, but I was time and again made to realise that Bihar is something ‘out of this world’.

rom a bus conductor to the landowner, for everyone, it was like an abuse, if you want to look down to someone, just call him “Ae Bihari”. I was, am and would remain proud of my state, my mother – Bihar.

By 2000-01, when we were getting out of college things remained somewhat the same, Bihar was a joke and Bihari - a slang. People even who don’t know the ‘H’ of history looked down on Bihar, I felt pity on them and still pity on the select few who still nurse the same feeling.

Come 2005, the state was witnessing a change, the leadership changed. Thanks to the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he realised, that before doing anything, he needs to change the perception about the state. He realised that for growth, people throughout the globe should look up to Bihar. He knew before getting industries in Bihar, we need to have a perception, a perception that creates an atmosphere where things move on their own.

With the change in leadership, there was a change in the mindset of the general people of the state, in Bihar and outside too. Media came in as the biggest catalyst at the right time, and changed the portrayal of the historically rich state of the nation.

I remember days during the college when fellow classmates were shy of telling people that they were from Siwan, Darbhanga or Chapra – they used names of places sometimes which they never visited as their homeland. Alas, these few were only helping to make the state a bigger Joke.

When I the same set now, they are proud, proud not only of the state but the places they belong to. They have endless things to tell people about their homelands. Like someone from Darbhanga narrates the story of Darbhanga Raaj, one from Siwan boasts of being from the land of the first President of the Country Dr. Rajendra Prasad so on and so forth.

Friends, fact were the same at that point of time too, when you were shy, you never tried to debate it out that you are from a state which boasts of being the land of Budhha, Mahavira; one which was an educational hub in the ancient era – The Nalanda University; the Magadha Empire.

What made me to write this was something which happened today. While waiting for some work at a bank in the capital today, I just got into a chat with someone sitting along me. He was from Gujarat. He talked me so much about Bihar and was so keen to know more and more that I felt proud. He was keen on visiting Bihar and wanted to know the business prospects, I told him whatever I knew, and gave him some tips to move ahead. He knew everything, from the revival of Nalanda University to the plans for Sugar Mills to be rejuvenated. He was in so much awe of Bihar; he termed it as the best place to invest.

Recently there was a small get together in a Central Delhi Hotel. It was for the first time that people were all positive about the state; they were ready to invest and some were already into it. They were the same people who earlier never dared to buy even a small piece of land in Bihar and rather were selling off what there ancestors have given them. This showed the positive attitude, the growth path.

Today hardly any landlord will refuse you a flat for being a Bihari in Delhi; no Bus conductor will keep howling “Ae Bihari”. That is not because we have done a lot, that’s just because we moved a bit on the positive path. A lot needs to be done, to again turn the state into a model state for the fellow states.

This all happened due to the change in perception nationwide, though never realised by the most seasoned of the politicians, perception is the strongest tool for development.

NB: This article was published in Times of India, Patna and a news website of Bihar - www.bihartimes,com.