patna slipslopes-I

Posted on | September 13, 2006 | Comments Off

history,they say,repeats itself.and so do numbers throughout history…and the number seven and its multiples seem integral to indianness,mythologically,of course…rama was sent to exile for fourteen years…the pandavas,if memory serves rights,did two such terms…and i am coming back to patna again after;you guessed it,seven years!!well,almost.not that i am a myth or anything like that.of course not!i am real and have all intentions of adhering to this state of affairs…

even so,another number i seem to have been stuck with,for most of my life…would be four.it is said to be my number as per numerology…aptly considered to be the most unlucky number bar eight;four is the sum of the digits in my date of birth,fourth is the position i held in my class in my higher secondary and plus two exams;studied in three different schools for four years each upto my plus two,and loyally;it did not even leave me in university…i am fourth in my faculty merit list…and now…u would think i would shake it off,but the number of people sharing our tiny two-bedroom flat in patna is…bingo again!!…four!!!cursed numbers…
enough of this detour….i have established even for the biggest dumboes to see clearly that i am back in patna after a gap of seven years;for my internship,and the time remaining to its completion is….double bingo!!!……four months!!!!!

i love this city,and i love its people.i love their rudeness,and their politeness,i love the cruelty of the town(lakhs of students coming each year to the city to make their careers,and almost as many going back empty handed….i was one of those who had come to the city to many MINE;for that matter…oh!where have those days gone!!),and the humanity of the city(i will never forget the time when i was suffering from malaria and had nobody to care…was so sick in fact that could not even go to a pco to call home…my landlady moved in and stayed up all night for three nights cold compressing me;preparing my food,abd seeing to it that i took my medicines)…i love the smell wafting up the gandhi setu even though i hate the stench of the city….and i come back to the city to find much that has changed;and yet so much that has not….

patna is now a scrambling business hub and yet i came back expecting the patna of seven years ago…instead i find a lot of highrises,busy markets,busier than ever roads..all signs of an economy about to explode…or may be in the process of explosion..i dont know much about patna’s economics at the moment…and yet it has differences from other boom towns…starting right from the construction of highrises…they are there as in any other major city,but they are more cement and concrete and iron masterpieces(created by architectural geniuses who i guess wanted to be artists,going by the oblique lines present in most of their constructions) than the gleaming steel and chrome and glass affairs of,say,mumbai/delhi/hyderabad/bangalore…reason?simple…vandalism is still too much…and i say this with a certain relish..because those enormous chrome and glass monstrosities seem to me just about as personal as,maybe,ice caps or glaciers….
mode of transport in patna?we dont much move by taxies..no,sir!!they are too damned expensive!!but it has auto rickshaws,those three wheeled black and yellow contraptions consisting of an engine block and some boards covered with foam,which are euphemistically,somewhat whimsically;and maybe even hopefully;called “AUTOS” for short…may be thats blasphemy of sorts considering the fact that most dont even have reverse gear and go back only when the driver puts his shoulder ox-fashion to their carts,pushing with one shoulder while steering with the other hand to achieve a miracle in maneouvering of a motorised vehicle that even fernandi alonso would be hard put to match…
okok!!its not THAT bad,nothing is ever THAT bad,actually…and we even have got a city bus service besides the local trains,but they are recommended only for the goners…
we also have got cell phone service providers,like all metropolis..with bsnl being the holy grail in public conception,of course,closely followed by airtel and others of the pack.of course;its another matter that if you want to talk on the network of the national phone of india,you had better start trying in the morning if you have to talk at night…as some wit expanded the acronym bsnl…”bhai sahab;nahi lagega”…your call wont be connected brother…..

and then i go to kankarbaagh to meet my friend..and the gods decide to gve me reprive from the heat by allowing the skies to open up…i return wading in knee-deep water…slippery,isnt it?

inspite of it,i love it.

later:the good,the bad,and the ugly.

currently reading:the moor’s last sigh.

last read:shalimar the clown;two lives.

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