Bird’s eye view: After a long time, my travel biographer would take an interest in the proceedings, because today we travelled 400 km from Patna to Asansol (incidentally, from one sister’s place to another’s). We left Patna at 7.30 am and rang the bell at Asansol at 2.45 pm, a little more than 7 hours, including meal and fuel breaks. That’s a fair run, given that in many places, speed drops to below 30 kmph. We travelled through three states - Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Roads in Bihar are better than we thought they would be. Both the Patna-Dobhi road, which ran south for 140 kms past Gaya and Bodhgaya, as well as the subsequent NH19, which actually runs from Delhi to Kolkata (1269 kms), were in great shape, though a lot of road expansion going on in the Bihar part queered the pitch a bit. The state seems to have received high funding for projects. Jharkhand roads, the little that we travelled today, were a dream as usual. West Bengal was also good, excep...