Bihar !

My first memory of Bihar will always be of fog. I woke up early morning, and looked out of the window of the train, and looked at a ghostly landscape, shrouded in fog. People, stations, poles, signals, trees, ponds, seemed to appear from nowhere - stayed in sight for a few moments and disappeared once again into nowhere.Patna, bustled with life and activity. Granite platforms, jazzy columns, glass and chrome in places, tried to give an impression of progress and modernity. Many groups of policemen all around made one feel at once safer and insecure. Insecure as one wondered 'why so many policemen ?' and safer as one thought 'well, at least we are protected'.The chaos outside the station is indescribable - autos, cycle rickshaws, cars, handcarts, ramshackle buses, and a mass of people vied with one another for space on the narrow roads. The autos were banged up, with cracked and broken windshields .. left like that ... as if there was no point in repairing it !

I settled into the guest house, and the day was spent waiting for Suneet, whose train was almost 10 hours late due to fog !!