It was my first class for Organizational Behaviour (in short OB, our first semester subject at my MBA college) when I was reminded that Biharis are extremely special in this world – Naturally gifted comedians. It doesn’t take them a single effort of any muscle when someone starts laughing on them without any cause. A number of times I, along with my few friends, have tried to figure out the specialities which make Biharis the in-born celebrity in India. Of course, the 'language and accent' is one of the many invaluable trademarks of Biharis. It has always amazed me how people in India doesn’t recognize completely different Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya but naturally figure out the Bihari accent which has never been at a distinguishable distance from Hindi. I think whenever nature gifts Bihar with a celebrity; it also creates his followers in different parts, across all over India. Biharis are always noticed, watched after and taken care of.
Being a Bihari, I have found myself at the centre stage of an Omni-directional question fire round on a numerous occasions. And every time I have noticed people having a foxed gaze on me like they will never get another chance of looking at some extinguishing species. This is excerpt of a conversation I had in an entrance interview of a very reputed management college in India:
Interviewer1: Introduce yourself. Tell me what your background is.
Me: Sir, I am from Bihar. I did my engineering..........
(Interviewer2 & 3 suddenly raised their head and looked at me with that typical foxed gaze. Till now they were busy in signing documents and checking phone calls.)
Interviewer3: What? From Bihar? (The reaction would have been same had I said “I am from Mars”.)
Me: Yes Sir. I come from Begusarai district.
Interviewer2: So, you are REALLY from Bihar? (Being from Bihar was not good enough. I will have to be REALLY from Bihar)
Me: Yes. I am REALLY from Bihar.
Interviewer2 (to Interviewer 1 & 3, with full amazement): Look Sir, people from Bihar also want to do MBA. (Like, he is the first one to discover that chimps can also learn)
Interviewer3: I am very impressed with you. Tell me how it feels to be from Bihar. (He was grinning and his head was spinning in a vertical plane around a horizontal axis passing through his pointed nose)
Me: Sir, It’s same like being from India. Nothing different.
Interviewer1: No, No. Bihar is completely different. Once I went to Begusarai (he pronounced it as Begumsarai) and there was a sign-board I noticed. It was stating “Get your enemy killed in just 100 rupees”. Don’t you think ‘100 rupees’ is too less for such a business? (I roamed around my hometown within 5 seconds but I couldn’t recall if I ever saw such a sign-board or not. Oh! Come on yaar! This fellow has never been to Bihar, not at least to Begusarai.)
Me: Not at all sir. I think you saw this sign-board on a medical store. It must be an advertisement of some Kayam-Churna which is an Ayurvedic medicine and kills enemies like stomach-ache and gastric. In 100 rupees you can get a big jar of Kayam-Churna.
Interviewer3: Ha, Ha.... Do you have enough money to pay fee for our institute? It’s more than 10 lacs this year. Don’t you know? (His head was still spinning)
Me: Yes sir. I don’t have that much money. But your college is a prestigious institute. So, I will easily get loan from a leading bank.
Interviewer2: Who will give loan to Biharis? They never pay premium for their loans. (And banks complain to him about all of its defaulters.)
Me: Actually sir, it’s the same story across all part of country. Last year, more than 10% customers from an educated high class society of Chandigarh were among the defaulters of SBI for their big ticket loan. And for a loan of up to 1.5 lacs, approximately 50% customers in Chandigarh didn’t pay their premium. Country has highest number of loan defaulters in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra but poor farmers there are still unable to pay anything. I think banks will not have........
Interviewer1: OK, OK....Tell me, what can be the only solution to Bihar’s problem.
Me: Simple sir. We will have to identify what the problem is.
Interviewer1: And what the problem is?
Me: I think ‘illiteracy and unawareness’ is the main problem.
Interviewer1: So you know the problem. How it can be solved?
Me: By a cumulative effort. We will have to work together. It will be good if your college agrees to have a branch in Bihar.
Interviewer1: Ha, Ha....It’s not our problem dear. You should think of some other way (We are here to just talk about them and to make fun of you guys). Anyway, thank you. You can go now.
Me: Thank you sir.
(I noticed interviewer2 & 3 were still having that typical foxed gaze even though interviewer3’s head was still spinning.)
It’s the same condition everywhere. In almost all the interviews I have faced till now, the topic of conversation had been Bihar. I think they understand that Biharis know all the other things but about Bihar. So, it is pretty good. Being a Bihari, you just don’t need to learn anything else. Everyone in India is fascinated by Bihari’s charisma and they will ask about you only.
