By Dev N Pathak Life options: double-edged choices! The former Vice-President of India Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma was stunned to hear the speech of a class six boy named Mukund Mani Pandey, at Mawlankar Hall in New Delhi (India). The boy was taken to Dr. Sahrma after the ovation thinned. Dr. Sharma exclaimed, ‘well done my boy! Where are you from?’ The boy said, ‘ I am from Vatayan school’. A perplexed Dr. Sharma asked, ‘I have never heard of this school! Where is it?’ The boy answered with a swelling chest, ‘it is as small a school as me in a small town called Siwan in a big state... 

Sunday Editorial You want someone better than Nitish? Three tales from the ground! By Ratnakar Tripathy I Bihar: cutting through the mist! I hate writing on politics as practiced and articulated by politicians but I love it when ordinary people share their political wisdom with me, at times even imposing it when I am not in the mood. Recently when I was in my village, I received a long patronizing lecture on Bihar politics from my host. He felt he owed the long sermon to someone educated who ought to know better. Being a Brahmin, he began with a rant against Nitish, who is from the Kurmi caste,... 

Maoists organize 6-day medical camp in Aurangabad: winning hearts with stethoscope!   Parsawa, Aurangabad: according to latest reports, the Maoists in Bihar recently organized a six daylong medical camp for villagers in Parsawa in Aurangabad. During the monsoon, villagers are commonly attacked by diseases like malaria and diarrhea that takes lives of almost 10-20 people every year. As is often the case, Parsawa villagers complain of lack of proper medical facilities and doctors. This gives the Maoists a good chance to popularize their cause through medical aid. The village is located... 

Dear reader, Did you notice! Did you notice? To complete the sentence – did you notice that bihardays pages are now opening considerably faster? With this note, our apologies and explanation for why you may not have been able to access bihardays in the past two days! bihardays site has now been through a significant software overhaul, if you permit the phrase. Over time we received regular complains from our readers regarding speed even though they very kindly indulged us and remained loyal to us. We are happy to let you know that we are now running faster and will get to you sooner... 

Rajeshwar Raj, MLA vs Rajesh Kumar, SDO: dhishum dhishum between politician and bureaucrat Patna: there are times when serious politics in Bihar turns into entertainment tamasha, though even in its tamasha form, it still remains deadly serious politics, make no mistake! Here is an interesting sequence of events indicating the state of relationship between our legislators and the bureaucracy: First, Rajeshwar Raj the JD [U] MLA from Karakat, Rohtas sends a fax to the assembly Speaker complaining against the SDO for using foul words and threatening to kill him. Soon after this, the SDO Rajesh...