A Bihari in Chandigarh

Jaya Shubhey Madan

WITH the Bihar elections on, we bhaiyas are the talk of the town. Treated largely as second-class citizens, and poor cousins of UPites, our endeavour to make a place for ourselves in Chandigarh continues.

It’s easy to look down upon us Biharis as “those migrants”, but it is we who always come to the rescue of the “elite” residents. We are the ones who help in their daily chores. We are the ones called upon to perk up homes with paints and brushes, to give concrete shape to dreams. Not to forget, we are the electricians, plumbers, hardworking rickshawallahs too. You name any trade and we are there. The “elite”, in short, can’t do without us.

White-collar jobs do not elude us, half the administrative corridors have our presence. And we may not be very open about where we come from, but once we do — Ka ho kaisan barah? (Hello! How are you?) — the cat is out of the bag. Our Bihari lingo, Bhojpuri, has that magic son-of-the-soil effect.  The moment these words tinker in the ears, hearts melt, miles don’t matter, we create a little Bihar of our own, here, everywhere.

The other day, I stopped a rickshawallah and he asked me in Maithili, Aaha katte jebai? (Where will you go?). I could connect to him instantly. I asked him to repeat what he had said, so this time, he tried his best to ask me in chaste Hindi, Aap kahan jayaengi? I replied in our own, Hum Sector 9 jebai (I will go to Sector 9). Oh, to see the delight on his face. More so, when I told him I belonged to Saharsa; he was from Madhepura, our very own Sharad Yadav’s constituency, which in electoral lingo is famously referred to as Rome Pope ka, Madhepura gope ka (Rome belongs to Pope and Madhepura to the Yadavs).

Then, without much effort, the conversation shifted to the elections. You can’t leave a Bihari out of politics, nor take politics out of him. Is baar kuch nahin kaha ja sakta, ladai Modi-Nitish ke beech mein hai, kaun rukh hawa kerega, nahin pata, chance waise pachase-pachase lagta hai (This time the fight is between Modi and Nitish don’t know who will win, there’s a 50-50 chance).

Destination reached, when I opened my wallet to pay and thank him, he said, Apne log se koi paisa leta hai kya? (Does anyone charge from their own?). I felt proud and uneasy. Proud of the Biharis’ spirit, their capacity to slog so far away from home, but uneasy over how life continues to deal so many of them a raw hand. And come to think of it, being treated as “those migrants” in a land that celebrates migration.