6 days and 1600 kms of Bihar

One thing that hit me is how different it is to visit a place as a tourist on vacation, as against a locally enabled experience. Having Bholanath and Ranjan with me, not to miss out our driver Prabhakar ji who was with us all six days, travelling by road through the heartlands of Bihar, and as you can see, a lot alongside the Ganges, allowed such a connect with the true nature and character of the place.... and for that I’m truly grateful.  

I thought the level of involvement might have gotten kind of overboard when Amitav tells me, ‘Arre, aap tho bihari accent mein bolreho' :)

It’s been at one time the most productive in terms of work, the most enriching in terms of exposure, and I must say also high on the spiritual scale by way of a visit to Bodh Gaya, and the Maha Bodhi Vriksh (tree) under which Buddha attained enlightenment.

Driving through Begusarai, Munger, Bhagalpur, Samastipur, Saamna, Jamui, Rajghir, BodhGaya, and back to Patna….. and while I knew not one of those names before the visit, they all seem so close and familiar now.

Eating Poori Bhaaji and Jalebi for breakfast,  Tea in matkas,  khova samosas at dhabhas, chaaval aur chicken at one of the dingiest places I’ve ever ever eaten, and lots of those little things that made it a memory that will last.

Dabaang, Jugad, TamTam, Ramayana, Buddha, Vihara ........they all flow with the same fluidity that the Ganges does.

The experience has so many facets, that I’m going to have to do a few posts to do justice.... let me start with work.

                     Bholanath, Ranjan and Ashish from our Munger Office

A solar installation; you see the panel?

Inside the home that has the installation

That's the LED light over the door. It's a two light 

system, with the other light inside

A potential entrepreneur, the kirana shop owner 

with Bholanath outside

A laptop, xerox and printer all on Solar Energy

That's the Entrepreneur on the left, with Raman, our 

service technician who is expert with Solar Installations

The village which has several SELCO Installations

Sharing bandi chaat with Archana who works 

with SEWA, a totally women run NGO

Bholanath and Ranjan, thanks a ton for making my visit and stay such a productive and wonderful experience, and looking forward to a lot of entrepreneurs and micro enterprises, identified and supported by your team.