Vir Sanghvi falls for the 'Bhaiyyas'

"I have respect too for the ordinary Biharis, who are truly the salt of India, going off to other states to create wealth for all of us."
-Counterpoint,Feb 23, 2008


Such sentimental disclosures only shock me.We are brought up on such education in our families that low-profile and silence and humility is what we need to carry on with to survive in states other than Bihar for almost anywhere and everywhere people resent our presence.We are considered uncouth, uncultured, 'abhadro' and vulgar by people of most communities.Though we die singing of Bihari merit, outside academic spheres hardly do the masses recognize us for it.And I really don't mind it 'coz in the first place, I can't help it; second, I know the kind of mess Bihar is in today, we couldn't expect anything more.This was how Indians were percieved before the superpower-in-waiting became a cliched refrain.And this is how we Indians percieve our Muslim and African counterparts today.
What shocks me that whenever I expect negatives, someone throws a positive at me, like Vir Sanghvi does here.Simmy(she's a Bengali) says that she finds Biharis sweet,simple and innocent(!!!).Again, when I was once looking for a PG in Kota, I came across a landlord that he preferred Bihari tenants because they were studious and did not create nuisance like their counterparts from Delhi or Haryana did(again,!!!).
I don't understand this duality.