Bihar: Development Should Be New Normal

Patna is not merely a city, but a node in the continuum between the past and present.

- PRATYUSH PRABHAKAR

Patna is also the story of countless people who got nurtured by its soil, and are contributing towards the making of a better world around the globe. It is also the story of glory, neglect and revival. Once dubbed by Amitava Kumar, the author of "A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna", as the city in which both the past and the present lie in ruins, is witnessing rapid growth with all the symbols of a modern-day city present, peace included, largely.

Patna, and Bihar, are about contradictions co-existing. The ancient and the modern, the poor and the rich, the personal and the political, belonging and non-belonging, all co-existing, sometimes at unease, but never at conflict. The abode of emperors and kingdoms has existed, persevered, and sometimes thrived. It never had it easy, yet it never failed to nourish, just like the ever-flowing Ganga which banks the city. The tumultuous ride through history, myriad hues of its society, has defined not just the place, but also millions of people who this place has ever touched.

Patna has always been a centre of education. The urban elites of Patna have traditionally not been people with wealth, but people with government jobs, attained by education. Patna University, dubbed once as the 'Oxford of the East', produced many luminaries. The Patna College served as literary and architectural inspiration for E M Forester's fictional Chandrapore College in "A Passage to India". The legendary Satyajit Ray shot his film "Seemabaddha" on its picturesque campus. While Patna College and University still yearn for their erstwhile glory, today Patna boasts of an IIT, a NIT, NIFT, NLU, and AIIMS.