Pooja and I co-wrote a case-study on NSPL for the Sitaram Rao Livelihoods Case-study Competition. It placed in the top 10. So I'm back in Delhi to attend a conference on livelihoods and get a shiny certificate, while the rest of Bihar celebrates Chhath.

Chhath is perhaps the most important festival in Bihar/Jharkhand. The sun god, Surya is worshiped and the devotees stand in various water bodies for over an hour reciting certain hymns. I got invited to Muzaffarpur to celebrate Chhath with Pramod, my office manager, but I had to come to Delhi instead.

The temperature is beginning to drop, with daytime temperatures already down to a balmy 80ºF in Patna. It's around 70ºF in Delhi right now.

My Bhojpuri skills have improved greatly, but it takes a conscious effort to try and speak it over Hindi. One of the reasons for that difficulty in switching is the subconscious effect of years of hearing Bhojpuri being spoken in Indian cinema/tv by characters who were depicted as being slow/rural/unsophisticated or Lalu. I never feel that when switching to Urdu or Gujarati.

Obviously, spending ten months in Bihar will rid me of many of the stereotypes that abound in India about the state. Bihar has the highest number of migrants that leave to work in other parts of India. As always, this is due to the lack of opportunities at home. My American readers are familiar with the debate raging in America about labor and immigration and how immigrants (legal/illegal) are often portrayed as stealing jobs from hardworking natives. That mindset can be found in India as well. Biharis face intense discrimination in places like Maharashtra, where "nationalistic" natives feel that they don't belong in their state.

Considering that they are all Indians, and not foreigners, this is a very disturbing trend that highlights the power that one's state commands in one's national mindset. The concept of "outsider" is very strong, and I feel that this is something that greatly hinders true national unity. State pride should be fostered, but it should come second to national unity.