WOMEN HOLD UP MORE THAN HALF OF BIHAR'S EARTH

Gender has never before been so pronounced in elections. But whoever the women of Bihar choose, the groundswell of aspiration can no longer be ignored

- SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA

SARITA Devi could well be Bihar. A one-woman personification could not be more apt. She's yet to get her pucca makaan. In the matchboxsized piece of the earth that's in her name, the floor is still cool mud. The roofing is pre-modern too, except for patches of tarpaulin and polythene. But her optimism pierces that ceiling. Her family is among the last 10 or 12 in this Dalit tola waiting for a concrete roof over their heads. She's confident it's on the way-whoever wins this Friday.

Around her is a colony that hugs a highway rushing back to Patna. The highways of Bihar today all seem scripted by Pirandello-a play in search of characters. Wide strips of shining new tar, all very 21st century, but mostly empty. Not counting the occasional big SUV, they look like tarmacs poised for takeoff. Only waiting for a plane.

If a local Rip Van Winkle were to wake up in the Bihar countryside, he wouldn't be lost. Nothing much has changed in 20 years. The breeze of the highways has not swept in much, but has left behind slipstreams of ambition. There's not much to slake that thirst. Only horizontal mobility-rickety shared vans going to town, trains ribboning out filled with gig workers.

In Patna, Rip Van Winkle may have woken up with a new face-well, a facelift of sorts, patchy yet tangible. India's growth story bursts through the shabbiness of Bihar's capital city. New five-star hotels, new malls, a BMW showroom, signs of new money colliding on the streets with familiar forms of life. Cheek by jowl with fancy buildings are wet markets, tin-roofed shanties, acres of teeming humanity. All contemplating flight, but pulled down by gravity.