wrap up on Bihar tour

Last time when I talked about Bihar, it was for friend's wedding and I promised to write more about my trip and more so on my first stay in Bihar.
People always threaten you/get frightened, the name itself has become analogous to place where you have to be very cautious, where you'd find notorious people and where living is tough etc. I didnt find things like that. I was in state capital and it looked like anyother Indian state capital. I went out to Nalanda and it was same as going to Puri from bhubaneshwar, Mahabalipuram from Chennai or Vidisha from Bhopal. I felt more comfortable going to Patna, than I would be when going to mumbai or anyother new city for that matter. May be coz I've got friends in Patna.

In one trip I can not dicuss about socio-economic profiles or conditions but would certainly say "roads need to be built up fast" and this is true for half of the country. I loved it when car driver showed residences of Lalu yadav and Nitish Kumar, facing each other. Next question - Who is more popular?? Nitish, after some thought process.

Seeing Rajgir was important, frankly speaking I never knew about this place, Bhaskar knew about it, My dad knew about it, said you should see it. The best thing in Rajgir is ropeway that takes you to a shanti stupa on a hillock, and the shanti stupa+monastery, made jointly by Indian and Japanese Governements. On the ropeway, I was scared, more while going up, its like moving up on a chair with world below and the chairs are open. While getting down Bhaskar was just behind me and was clapping and shouting making me comfortable, I got a video of him!!We did not pay for the ropeway, our host made it sure. "Mamaji" was the answer, if anybody would ask. The cost is though very little, I think Rs 30 per head.

There is a warm water source and you can take a bath too, we did. I am usually shy in bathing in open, but there I felt like taking a bath. Our host provided a shop for changing clothes. There are many old strucutures that you'd like to see (temples, caves, fortune caves, Bimbisar caves, His dad's (Ajatshatru) Jail, Arjuna -Krishna's chariot marks, and many Budhist and Jain temples). The Naxal area is also just round the hills!!

While returning we planned to booze, the final yes from bhaskar only when we entered the city (I am always game for ..) so we really had less time. After unsuccessful attempts at local brand shops, we could spot a english shop, and what a fun we got Vodka in Regular Use Medicine (RUM) bottle.

Well, while returning the train got 4 hrs late, I could only abuse Rahul (He met us outside the station and said - your train will be late for sure!). So I sat around and passed my time in a restraunt at Railway station. Suddenly there were 20-30 guys in the restraunt - uff what was that now! They were having a meeting - a political I thought, but they were students who came there to learn about some computer course offered by a company doing business like Amway. They become member, make new members and learn things. It comes with supplements like english courses and I remembered Outlook's cover story The english curse (requires free registeration to read) couple week's ago.