New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- To begin with, I request the leaders sweating it out in Bihar's electoral fray, please don't bother to look for poll math here, as it's a collage of massive changes and its enduring pain and the resultant cry.

First, let's return to the last decade of the 20th century. Two colleagues and I were on our way to Dhanbad from Patna. In the dim sunlight of peak winter, we witnessed a disturbing scene near the road. In that bitter cold, facing a slush-filled pond, a woman wearing only a sari was poised to bathe. But her embarrassment held her back. She didn't have another sari to wear after bathing and people in vehicles passing by leered at her. I was trying to understand her vacillation in a dignified way. What followed ...