Batras  [बतरस] Three tales of thieves from then and now!  By Ratnakar Tripathy Way back at the age of eleven, I loved and looked forward to the annual summer vacation of full two and a half months I would get to spend in my village in Champaran. This was the time when I could take off my convent school mantle and become one with the village. It took me all of three days after arrival to forget the use of shoes or chappals and a few more days to stop combing my hair altogether. My village friends waited patiently for the transformation to take place, for the dirt to occupy its rightful... 

Sunday Editorial Bihari migrant saga: the untold story of learning By Ratnakar Tripathy   Class room of life For the past two years I have carried a monumental hypothesis in my head which I failed to make public. The reason was – where is the evidence to prove it? But this fear and trembling is over now as I realize that in order to find the innumerable evidences proving the hypothesis, all I need to do is leave my eyes sufficiently open! The hypothesis at its simplest was and is – in the last thirty and odd years, the common man in Bihar has been on a binge of learning. True, the migrant...