When you keep your expectations as low as I did, it is very difficult to be disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised what I saw in Patna. We stayed in the "posh" Exhibition Road of the city and you could be fooled to think that you are in any boom town in India. There's a Dominos Pizza filled to the brim, an HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and all sorts of multinational brands.
The city is now considered safe after dark and every local is proud of the improved law and order situation. Biharis love Nitish Kumar and he was given an unbelievably large mandate in the recent elections. For the capital city of the poorest state in India, there was one glaring contradiction: No beggars on the streets.
To be really fair, I found Patna to be a much more livable and cleaner city than say Guwahati in Assam. The locals are friendly, there is a great level of optimism and people believe that Bihar's time has come. "Our growth-rate is catching up with China," a successful entrepreneur told me. Alright, I don't want to be mean but seriously. If my GDP is 10 dollars and grows to 11 dollars, I can hardly indulge in chest-banging and claim that my economy will be greater than the dragon's
The city is now considered safe after dark and every local is proud of the improved law and order situation. Biharis love Nitish Kumar and he was given an unbelievably large mandate in the recent elections. For the capital city of the poorest state in India, there was one glaring contradiction: No beggars on the streets.
To be really fair, I found Patna to be a much more livable and cleaner city than say Guwahati in Assam. The locals are friendly, there is a great level of optimism and people believe that Bihar's time has come. "Our growth-rate is catching up with China," a successful entrepreneur told me. Alright, I don't want to be mean but seriously. If my GDP is 10 dollars and grows to 11 dollars, I can hardly indulge in chest-banging and claim that my economy will be greater than the dragon's
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