I had been away from home for a good one week, traveling to places that are supposed to be home – my place of birth, hometown, land of my forefathers etc.
I travel to Patna at least once a year, but rarely for the whole seven days. Traveling to Patna is rather easy with an overnight express train without any stops along the entire 1004km.
Patna can be a frustrating experience. The sorry state of roads has been worsened with the excessive rain washing away the top black layer. The slow-moving traffic and the constant honking can be maddening. However I believe local travel in the city can improve dramatically by two simple changes – a) build roads that last & b) remove the slow-moving cycle rickshaws off the main thoroughfares, at least from Bailey Road, Fraser Road, Exhibition Road, Boring Road, and Ashok Rajpath and around Gandhi Maidan.
A friend’s father lent me his car for use during my stay in Patna. It was rather very thoughtful of him. With the car, I was able to finish the tasks at hand quite comfortably. But driving around in Patna was a test of patience. I was jostling for space with cycle rickshaws and pedestrians, even in the central business district of the city. When did I knock off both the front indicators, I just don’t know.
Patna seemed to have an optimistic buzz which I hadn’t seen in the last few years. The city is gripped with a whole lot of activity with a brand new IIT at last, a new national law university, and a much-hyped business school, and a couple of new engineering colleges. Patna had not seen such an effort at institution building for a very long time. Property prices have gone up, the city has various flyovers under construction, and people seem to be generally making more money. Things, at last, are changing for the better.
Being away from home for such a long time, brought about certain new realizations – A simple call asking ‘what’s happening’ twice – thrice a day meant quite a lot to my mother & most importantly that I still love Patna.