A lot of unfair things are said about Bihar. But a lot of fair things are unsaid. This is most unfortunate, since those fair but unsaid things usually rhyme. An example? "The tea in Bihar is often sub-par."
I've only had good tea in Bihar twice. The first time was when I brought my own Good Earth from home (USA!). The second time was when Neetu made me tea using her Uttar Pradesh-sourced skills and recipe (UP!). Everything else has been burnt milk and sweetener. Take note Mr. CM: fixing this could be the silver bullet in your development strategy.
On the other hand, tea in Ghazipur is very good. This seems arbitrary to me, since I see no reason why a political boundary like the Bihar-UP state border would present such an impediment to the flow of good tea. Yesterday, in fact, I had the best tea since I steeped/stooped/stooped over to steep my last Good Earth back in October. I was with some surveyors in a village about 30km from Ghazipur. We were in a Yadav hamlet, trying to locate some respondents, when the owner of a nearby house approached us with some tea. Tea in these villages is often presented in small cups made of red clay, an earthy vessel that only adds to the drinking experience. Unusually, this tea was not milk tea, but some kind of spiced lemon tea. It had been steeped/stooped/stooped over with chillies, enough to give it a real kick. The homeowner and the other people sitting in front of his house never said a word to us. They were just showing the hospitality that comes so instinctively to villagers in north India, even when the visitors are strange men asking strange questions of random people in the village.
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