Patna

Patna's a friendly town.

Our driver Shravan (though I kept calling him Sarwan and Deepti kept telling me I had it wrong) was very proud of a cutting in a newspaper discussing his act of honesty where he returned a wallet to the owner - containing 15000 rupees or at least 3 months salary. He had kept and laminated the english and hindi versions of the article. Patna and Bihar are obviously so use to the corrupt past, that it is looking for heroes in every day people.

Getting to Deepti's parent's house is not easy. I'd only been once before, and that was in a rush, so this time we had time to take it slowly. The directions are: turn right at Jamuna Apartments, go down the alley, across the intersection, turn left (I think), turn right, honk the horn to get people to move their bikes they have parked in the alley and then you're there. In other words, I was lost. It's a high density part of Patna, but actually inside Deepti's home, it's quiet and peaceful (apart from the man who seems to know when I call Deepti because that's when he starts yelling out he's got potatoes for sale).

It was funny how the things I thought would be challenging about Patna were not at all; nobody tried to rip us off, we found nappies and baby items very quickly and easily and people were welcoming. After the torturous trip to Ranchi, coming to Patna felt like coming home.