Explaining the enigma that is Bihar was never easy, even for a son of the soil like late Arvind Narayan Das, whose Republic of Bihar came out over twenty years ago, when the state was deemed to be beyond redemption despite tall claims of an imminent industrial revival. The task in 2012-13—when Bihar and its chief minister are being hailed all around for providing an alternative development model— remains equally difficult. How, after all, does one explain sustained economic growth in a state which has no industrial base, no electricity and no mineral reserve; where education and public health are still in a mess and, even more strangely, where agriculture’s share in the state GDP has been steadily declining even as 80 per cent of its population continue to be dependent on it? Add to this a year marked by devastating floods and two years of drought during the last eight years, and the miraculous growth starts making less sense.