This Minister's Son Peddles Newspapers

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MUZAFFARPUR: In an era when even mukhiyas' wards driving four-wheelers are not an uncommon sight, Uday Prakash Gupta is the odd man out. Like any other newspaper hawker, his day starts at 4.30 am when he -- be it summer or winter -- rushes out of his Naya Tola home here, loads bundles of newspapers on his bicycle and then pedals off to sell them. Unlike his colleagues, however, Uday's CV reveals he is the son of Mohanlal Gupta, a former Bihar minister.

Fifty-plus Uday, after making drops at the doorsteps of his permanent customers, stands somewhere in the market and sells "aaj ki taaza khabar". As the sun gets to set, he counts he has sold some 200 newspapers.

"I am happy with my job," said Uday who has done a three-year motor mechanic course from an ITI after doing matriculation. Though he aspired and attempted, he could not get a job in Bihar State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC). That too when his father was the minister of state for food and civil supplies in the Bihar government led by Karpoori Thakur in the late 1960s.

"My father refused to do 'pairvi' and the BSRTC authorities would take in only those who paid them bribe," Uday recalled and added with a smile he couldn't afford to pay the babus the Rs 20,000 that was the rate for a motor mechanic's job in BSRTC then.

As a struggler, Uday started as a mechanic in a private garage here. He later bought a kiosk and started selling books. But the earning was insufficient to run the family of husband, wife and three kids. He then switched over to hawking newspapers.

Uday has a brother who is in a small job in a private Delhi firm, and the duo have inherited two ancestral houses located in the town. Uday lives in one of the houses and has let out the surplus of his share. Most of the rent and his earnings over the years Uday has invested in education to his children. While the son is in Delhi doing MCA, the elder daughter has just graduated out of a local college. The other daughter is in plus two.

Uday's father first entered the Bihar Legislative Assembly after the 1967 mid-term poll. He was re-elected in 1969 from Muzaffarpur on a Congress ticket. However, he changed sides and joined Socialist Party led by Thakur. He lost the next election.
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