The one and only Bhikhari Thakur: a 123rd birth anniversary salute! Today is the 123rd birth anniversary of Bhikhari Thakur, the well-known Bihari playwright. We present here an aspect of his professional life not widely known outside the theatre circles. Bhikhari showed his modernism not simply through his choice of themes and stories, most of which seem to relate to what he saw as social evils. Bhikhari was also modern in ‘practice’ in a very direct sense – he insisted on drawing written contracts with his clients, mostly landlords. The contracts did not simply carry clauses concerned...