SIR (wanted to use ‘respected’ but somehow not finding it apt today),

I am sure you know that there isn’t any urban youth who has missed the news of the TOPPERS OF BIHAR. It was flooded all over the social media and electronic media, chance that someone might have missed is really slim. The bad news travels faster than the speed of light in today’s internet world than the good ones is a separate issue altogether.

Well, the news and incident was indeed a shame, it was depressing and scary that how deep the roots of corruption are, and a mockery of the most important pillar, our education system.

But the repercussions are far more shameful, disrespectful and depressing. Once again the already ILL FAMOUS BIHAR and BIHARI folks are put on platter for NETIZENS to talk about and to mock about.

I just received this ? message from various sources and groups on my WhatsApp (and this is just one of few)

नोकर-:मालिक हमरा के दू दिन की छुट्टी दई दो

3 साल बाद बिहार जा रहे है।

मालिक -:क्या करेगा बे बिहार जा के

नोकर -:मालिक घर से चिठ्ठी आई है हमारी MBBS पूरी हो गई है, हम top किया हु, ओ ही का डिग्री लेने जाना है।

Many of us (including lots of Bihari folks) had a hearty laugh on this JOKE. But I was DEEPLY HURT every time I read a joke on this subject, because it is indeed a SERIOUS JOKE! A joke on BIHAR, a JOKE on BIHARI folks and sadly a JOKE on the current state of affairs in the culturally rich, productivity rich, resources rich BIHAR!

A little background about me, I am a girl from Uttar Pradesh and married (my choice) to a boy from BIHAR. Before knowing him (back in 1999, like many around me, I also had some apprehensions about Bihar and Bihari folks, courtesy –

1) The 15 years of not so progressive reign of Mr Lalu Yadav and his party, which was taking BIHAR in backwards direction when all other states were progressing forward.

2) Our society always talks about demerits of others rather than ourselves. (UTTAR PRADESH is and was, almost equivalent in its crime rate, corruption and overall development to Bihar, but sadly when it comes to “IMAGE” , all we hear about is only BIHAR) only after knowing a person so closely for so many years, I came to know what all RUBBISH I have heard and what all POSITIVES I haven’t. My husband truly is a GEM and I have seen how much hard work and efforts he has continuously put in all his life to make his (and people around him) life better.

He comes from a middle class family (which was on an income of just one person, his father, with responsibilities of his own and extended family too, approx. 35 people thriving on his expense). He is a KAYASTHA (hence a general category deprived candidate), with no money or power (political) to come to his rescue. The only power he had was his WILL POWER to excel and succeed in life. He grilled himself and studied really hard to prepare for engineering (which was an obvious choice of many in those years of late nineties), and got good rankings in entrance exams and got admission in a prestigious institution – NIT PATNA.

His struggle never ended though, neither INSIDE nor OUTSIDE BIHAR. The university had its own issues (which I don’t want to point), those were difficult days with no facilities with slim funds (because of neck to neck expenses back at home, he financed his studies on his own by earning while studies) and the bigger challenge was to prove his worth to world OUTSIDE BIHAR.

But as I mentioned earlier, he has perseverance and I have seen him continuously putting efforts and keeping his best foot forward and working hard. He managed everything, studies, food, tuitions and his livelihood with bare minimum expenses and hardships, and as a result he is at a very respectable position in a respectable organisation today.

He has 7 siblings, and I have seen all of them, their spouses, their cousins, and almost everybody in his family, overcoming their hardships and coming out of them so successfully. Thankfully all are placed at respected positions across the globe.

Not only him and his family, I am sure there are many more such examples of BIHAR who worked extra hard in those years just because the state to which they belonged had nothing great to offer to them and in fact when they move out of the state and country, they somewhere deep down knew that they have to walk an extra mile to prove their worth amongst NON-BIHARI peers.

I really wish that you could also see, observe and feel the hardships they go through in the journey which they start FROM BIHAR. Had you felt them once, that what it takes to be a scholar and still prove yourself worthy enough just being associated with a particular state, I am sure SIR, you would have given your day and night to CHANGE that PERSPECTIVE OF BIHAR .

You may not know it SIR (because you never faced it practically), but I have seen people with small and big issues, struggling hard with their ACCENT (though our hypocritical society never spares a Bengali, a Gujarati, a Malayali too but when its ill fame then it has to be BIHAR). I have seen that despite their degrees, how they balance hard to get themselves out of that STAMP of BEING FROM BIHAR, vis-a-vis, the pride to be associated with BIHAR (because I have observed SIR that they never learned to be disrespectful to THEIR BIHAR).

So all this was going on shamelessly from years, but with their continuous efforts and hard work for many years in a row, Bihari folks secured top seats in entrance competitive exam, grabbed most seats in IIMs, IITs and other top colleges, securing strategic key positions in organisations and continuously proving their worth across globe, when NOW they just started having little success in somehow changing at least the IMAGE of BIHARI folks (not exactly Bihar, because that in my opinion, will still take many more efforts and years) there came this incident of TOPPERS OF BIHAR.

As I mentioned earlier that the repercussions it has are far bigger than what it seems. I again see JOKES on COMPETENCY OF BIHARI folks AND BIHAR.

I am deeply deeply hurt sir, because CORRUPTION, CARELESSNESS, NEGLIGENCE, INSENSITIVITY and FOOLISHNESS of a bunch of soul less BIHARIS (the ones who seek such degrees to the ones who are a part of providing such degrees and the ones who care a damn (including YOU SIR) what’s happening under their nose) has once again MALIGNED THE IMAGE of the ones who worked hard and still working hard to get THOSE DEGREES and CHANGE THAT IMAGE.

I am so deeply hurt acknowledging the fact that any Tom Dick or Harry could now casually comment on the hard earned educational certificates of the BRIGHT and BRILLIANT MINDS of BIHAR, including my husband who has seen no other way of success in life than hard work.

This is an irreparable damage and how I wish you as a CHIEF MINISTER, chosen democratically could change it or had done something proactively to ensure that this did not happen. But alas, THIS HAPPENED and can’t be changed, but what YOU as a CHIEF MINISTER could do is pull up your pants, fasten your belt, and DO SOMETHING so that nothing of this sort or any other happens again which RUIN THE EFFORTS of my husband and many others like him who work hard day and night to earn and live a respectable life. PLEASE don’t just sit idle and let some idiots affect and take back that RESPECT which they all have earned the hard way.

You should THANK my husband and many such young individuals who raised above average and by virtue of their supreme qualities made others see and believe the TOTALLY DIFFERENT BIHAR from what I have learned all through my early(not so mature)years. People like him let the world know, that the thing called INTELLIGENT QUOTIENT (IQ) is terrific and at par in BIHARIS. Their SENSE OF HUMOR can tickle the funny bone of a dead man. Their STREET SMARTNESS can make others envy. They are INGENIOUS. PERIOD.

– A Deeply Hurt PROUD BIHARI BAHU, Nimisha

Nimisha Dixit Sinha was born and brought up in Agra UP, a BPharm and MBA by education. Worked in past as a Radio Jockey and Producer in Radio Dhoom Ranchi.