From being a person who has hardly stepped out of his home state (save for a coupla visits to Bangalore and TamilNadu), I got to travel to a whole lot of places... have been literally living out of the suitcase (well, a backpack & a duffel bag in my case) for the past few months... My current project has taken me to Haryana, Rajathan, UP and finally Bihar... (I've some beautiful pics of the Taj and some forts in Rajasthan which I'll upload soon)
And so that's how I ended up in Bihar.. The beginning was pretty bad, with my train arriving a good 7.5 hrs late... and due to flooding, I had to switch cabs twice before finally reaching my hotel... But things were not as bad as I had thought them to be... My work has taken me to interior regions of the state... It is very beautiful.. acres and acres of lush green paddy fields meet the eye... reminded me a lot about Kerala (except that there were no Coconut trees here)...
It was my first time visiting a flood affected area.. Felt really bad for the people... Crops were destroyed, they homes ruined and livestock gone astray... the only place that was not water logged were the roads and so one could find, people living on the roadside on temporary tents and their cattle tied to the nearby trees... Hope the situtation improves soon...
Despite a few mishaps.. such as the cow that charged at me while I was in Arrah (Bhojpur) or the one at the wholesale market in Gaya where my foot got stuck in a foot deep trench of slush and cow dung and vegetable waste... (and quite a few more) it was a good trip... I got loads of info for my proj... professionally, it was a good learning experience and above all I got an idea about how the other side of India lives... they are not concerned about the Sensex touching 17K.. or about whether India will win the next match.. it is a fight for survival for them.. when will I get my next square meal... how will I rebuild my home... how will I find grass for my cattle...
Amid all the rejoicing about India Shining, the booming economy and the India@60 charade.. spare a thought for these poor souls...
Now what makes this worse for me personally is that I myself will not do anything about it... A blog or two and a nagging feeling for a few days.. But then its back to busy life in Bangalore going on to my next proj and an endless effort to meet those all important KRAs and rake in the moolah... yeah! I'm indeed a rat in the rat race...
1 comment:
Glad someone is honest!
Otherwise very few would dare to think about the plight of Indians who never represent India.
It is nice to read about a guy on his job forced to travel in Bihar, a part of his own country, who otherwise might not have cared that much. :)
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