[Reader-list] Reply to:Loneliness of a Long Distance Bihari BY a solitary 1/2km Daily runner.

[Dr. Reyhan Chaudhuri]

Mr.Bhartiya’s postings were really a good read and one can suspect that 
writing it may have made him quite nostalgic and fondly look back on his 
childhood.
However since I’ve been told this is a public space in a relatively public 
domain and that we can air our completely own opinion and views unrestrained 
,so I must make the intitiative of doing  precisely that. So ,even if it is 
at the cost of nettling him or putting him on a  defensive stance, I feel I 
must state that perhaps next time or consequently he ought to probe the 
reasons for the Bihari syndrome. Why did the stereotypical myths emerge and 
why these preconceptions(he would probably  prefer to call them prejudices) 
are not entirely  old granny tales ? It is one of the BIMARO states (as 
statisticians call it) which roughly translates in Hindustani as:’Sick”.But 
is also an acronym Bihar /MadhyaPradesh /Rajasthan/ Orissa. (Bengal? 
U.P?They maybe included too,I must check up.)                                
    For those who are not familiar with our subcontinent it may be relevant 
to tell them that India is divided into states and union territories. Like 
perhaps the federal states of America .However they are more like the  EEC 
countries with different languages, different scripts and often even 
races;)These Bimaro states are problem areas(though a cynic would say whole 
of the country is in dire straits. ) and sick in the sense that they are 
more diseased in comparison to some of the other states. All their Mortality 
and Morbidity Rates are at a dismal level and more important much lower than 
the National
Calibrations. These include the Economic rates and the more abstract but 
equally real in terms of ‘life & ‘living’ ,the:Psycho-Social ones. I would 
include  in this category the perpetuation of feudal or mediaeval atrocities 
and obscurantism .Everyone shall pounce upon me that it happens all over the 
Asian continent or in the country. Please, it is in different  degrees and 
shades and in INdia where it is rampant(I would never say ubiquitous) even 
these  microgrammic or nanogrammic variations become significant for one to 
generalize with labels and  biased slogans.
I do not want to shatter anyone’s scenic dewy drama of their childhood as 
even as a(or rather as a) medico , I can sense they are a  vital framework 
for sustaining one’s’ future’ and presence of the subconscious’ present’. 
However going back to the past as a post-adolescent for self-analysis(and 
not self-worth) surely he /she can smell the rat  or clench the cockroach. I 
mean the menace of evil or brutal violence that is omniscient. Ofcourse 
there are normal people (read human) like everywhere on the Good Earth.
But their potentialities their very own  home/ state(viz. Bihar) are 
crippled and niceties constantly tested by this sandfly  lurking  as  mother 
of all  kala azars. Infact it is not one but a swarm of sandflies, volatile 
under a curiously  dormant crust and exploding or relapsing into riotous 
ravage in a very random manner. (Very alarming this both for the inhabitants 
and onlookers like me.)
Sorry to meander into non-explicit messages but what I mean is surely there 
is some reason why there is no’ Rajasthan syndrome’ or a derogatory 
MadhyaPradeshi’ tag.And this is not because they are not labour class or 
blue collar workers. All the migrants from the other BIMARO states into 
Delhi (& other metropolises)(,though  I specifically said Delhi as the 
author/reader-list member mainly discussed  Delhi ) are not Computor Gurus 
or Neuro-surgeons. Most of them are also of equally humbling  background and 
professions…So why  are there no negative aspersions or detrimental baggage 
with them or for them?
Before I end maybe I should tell  you that I am not from  any of the other 
BIMARO states to speak on their behalf. My views emerge entirely out of 
personal experience (read partly private) and not prejudice. Well no, not 
quite as I admit there may be self-conscious prejudice (yes, there can be 
such a  thing) but the personal experience preceded the prejudice and not 
vice versa.
Yrs. Sincerely (& With no Cheers at all or with some languid ones)

:R.Chaudhuri


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